Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* As has been the case since January, the sort may be a little rough. News keeps moving fast, so some items may be already out of date.

I am once again having to cut things off before I'm done. Apologies.

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* "Exclusive: Israel still eyeing a limited attack on Iran's nuclear facilities:" https://archive.ph/G1vWp

* "Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 50, Palestinian officials say:" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g28g02ng2o

* "Israeli bombardment of Gaza kills 92 in two days: Health Ministry:" https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/19/israeli-bombardment-kills-92-in-two-days-gaza-government

* "Gazans survive among unexploded bombs:" https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/GAZA-ORDNANCE/byvrxbenwve/

******

* "Trump says he’s got his ‘own deadline’ for Ukraine talks as tensions flare:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/trump-ukraine-deal-norwegian-leaders-00307891

* This is what Russian promises are worth.

* "'Russian peace in all its glory' — Mass Russian missile, drone attack on Kyiv kills 12, injures 87:" https://kyivindependent.com/explosions-heard-in-kyiv-amid-russian-missile-attack/

* "Russia intensifies push in Kursk, Sumy border areas as Ukraine holds line, Syrskyi says:" https://kyivindependent.com/russia-steps-up-assault-on-sumy-oblast-kursk-border-as-ukraine-holds-line-syrskyi-says/

* "Russian attacks during Easter ceasefire killed 3 in Ukraine's Kherson region:" https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russian-attacks-easter-ceasefire-declared-putin-killed-3-121004572

* "Russian forces stage mass drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa, governor says:" https://archive.ph/kXs2r

******

* "Sudan - The Biggest Humanitarian Crisis In The World Today:" https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2025/04/19/sudanthe-biggest-humanitarian-crisis-in-the-world-today/

* "Haiti’s government adopts a ‘war budget’ as town after town falls to gangs:" https://apnews.com/article/haiti-gangs-violence-war-budget-mirebalais-saut-deau-daa19487d58e9ada1846ad674bca0e54

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* "EU to present roadmap in May to phase out all imports of Russian fossil fuels:" https://archive.ph/mDDq1

* "Witchcraft accusations putting hundreds at risk of "physical attacks or even death" in Ghana, Amnesty says:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/witchcraft-accusations-hundreds-risks-ghana-amnesty-international/

* "Europe’s streets are alive with the sound of protests:" https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/04/16/europes-streets-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-protests

* "Nearly 200 students, journalists go on trial in Turkey over Istanbul protests:" https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250418-nearly-200-students-journalists-go-trial-in-turkey-over-istanbul-protests-erdogan-crackdown

* "Georgia fired 700 civil servants for supporting pro-EU protests, watchdog says:" https://archive.ph/OZcxV

* "Donald Trump's shadow looms large over Australian and Canadian elections:" https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-22/donald-trump-affecting-opposition-in-canada-and-australia/105196740

* "Visions of Solidarity: Lesbian writers on how we save the world from fascism:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/visions-of-solidarity-schulman-vaid

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* "Syrian letter delivers response to US conditions for sanctions relief:" https://archive.ph/DIIEK

* "Trump may get a nuclear deal — on Iran’s terms:" https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-may-get-a-nuclear-deal-on-irans-terms/

It seems to me we had a really good deal with Iran that was working. Wouldn't it have been simpler to keep it in place and negotiate changes now instead of ripping it up in Trump's first term because a black man touched it? Because now there is zero trust in any agreement we might make.

Just saying.

* Who are we to demand reforms of anything while we are descending into kleptocracy? Are reforms a good idea? Yes, but not along fascism oligarch lines, but rather progressive ones. "Bessent says US will seek reforms of IMF, World Bank:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/23/bessent-says-us-will-seek-reforms-of-imf-world-bank-00305728

* "US and global economic outlook deteriorates in Trump trade war, IMF says:" https://apnews.com/article/recession-imf-economy-tariffs-5ec37492c9fac499923c094776b87552

* "Sherrod Brown: What Worries Me Most About Trump’s Failing Economy:" https://archive.ph/AKKS5

* "Stocks, Bonds Sink in Broad Retreat From US Assets: Markets Wrap:" https://archive.ph/wGf6g

* "Why Trump Decided Not to Try to Fire Jerome Powell:" https://archive.ph/mO1eL

Jerome Powell is just about the last thread holding the Trump ravaged economy together.

* "Key House Republican defends Fed against Trump interference:" https://www.axios.com/2025/04/22/trump-powell-fed-lucas

* "Conflicting US-China talks statements add to global trade confusion:" https://archive.ph/WXU0l

* "Trump’s fixation on a tariff battle win against China could cost him the trade war:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/25/trumps-xi-trade-war-battle-wins-00309223

* "Gamers Nexus out there casually providing the best coverage of tariffs:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2036344.html

* "Rubio unveils a massive overhaul of the State Department that would cut staff and bureaus:" https://apnews.com/article/state-department-rubio-reorganization-trump-usaid-3fc186fefddaaa72c3040db9fb380af4

These are essential experts that will be hard to replace.

* "Trump administration denies draft executive order outlining State Department changes:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-draft-executive-order-sweeping-changes-state-department-rcna202047

Notice the racism and the complete lack of understanding of why we need embassies and linguists and diplomats and people who are experts in a particular country.

* "A jungle route once carried hundreds of thousands of migrants. Now the local economy has crashed:" https://apnews.com/article/migration-darien-gap-trump-panama-colombia-ba393b4cf8caecdcf24556f7f84be508?

* "ACLU says Trump officials not complying with Supreme Court in deportation case:" https://archive.ph/YODZ6

* "Trump admin must seek return of another man who was improperly deported to El Salvador, judge rules :" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/trump-el-salvador-deportation-venezuelan-minor-judge-00307336

* "Gay asylum-seeker's lawyer worries for the makeup artist's safety in Salvadoran ‘hellhole’ prison :" https://www.advocate.com/news/andry-romero-attorney-cecot

* "Robert Garcia demands answers in case of gay Venezuelan migrant deported to El Salvador prison:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/robert-garcia-cecot-ice-demand

* "Rep. Garcia on Trump deportations: 'Everyone has a right to due process':" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/rep-garcia-on-trump-deportations-everyone-has-a-right-to-due-process-238412357851

* "Democratic lawmakers fly to El Salvador and demand action on gay man Trump sent to CECOT prison:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/robert-garcia-andry-hernadez

* "He disappeared after detention. Now ICE is silent on the fate of Venezuelan man:" https://archive.ph/XGkmh

* "Administration ordered to more fully respond to discovery requests from Abrego Garcia's lawyers:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/abrego-garcias-attorneys-decry-administrations-failure-comply-court/story?id=121046788

* Doxxing her is state terrorism. "Abrego Garcia’s Wife Moved To Safe House After DHS Exposed Her Address On X:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kilmar-abrego-garcia-wife-dhs-doxx_n_68094822e4b047d19264e2d7

* "Mahmoud Khalil misses son's birth after ICE official denies his request to be there:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/nx-s1-5371757/mahmoud-khalil-misses-sons-birth-after-ice-official-denies-his-request-to-be-there

* "Lawmakers visit Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk at Louisiana ICE facilities:" https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-04-22/lawmakers-visit-mahmoud-khalil-and-rumeysa-ozturk-at-louisiana-ice-facilities

* "Palestinian student remains detained in Vermont with a hearing set for next week:" https://apnews.com/article/mohsen-mahdawi-columbia-student-detained-ice-vermont-2078326229e424b722e837595a03a042

* "Detained Palestinian activist in Vermont prison says he's 'in good hands':" https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/detained-palestinian-activist-vermont-prison-good-hands-focused-121053604

* "New images could change cancer diagnostics, but ICE detained the Harvard scientist who analyzes them:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-detain-kseniia-petrova-protest-harvard-cancer-research-rcna202180

* "Activist who took sanctuary in a church during first Trump term detained:" https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/21/activist-who-took-sanctuary-in-a-church-during-first-trump-term-detained/83197570007/

* Stay Noisy. It can work. "Trump administration reverses abrupt terminations of foreign students’ US visa registrations:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/25/trump-admin-reverses-termination-foreign-student-visa-registrations-00309407

* "German Teens Try to Visit Hawaii, End Up Deported :" https://ground.news/article/german-teens-try-to-visit-hawaii-end-up-deported

* "Activist who took sanctuary in a church during first Trump term detained:" https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/21/activist-who-took-sanctuary-in-a-church-during-first-trump-term-detained/83197570007/

* "Trump DOJ Ordered ICE to Invade Homes Without Search Warrant:" https://newrepublic.com/post/194442/trump-doj-memo-ice-arrest-search-warrant

Republicans claim the 4th Amendment doesn't apply if they don't want it to. They are attacking the most vulnerable now, but no one is safe if they can do this.

Stand up now.

* "Tents could soon house more immigrants at Krome Detention Center:" https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/tents-could-soon-house-more-immigrants-at-krome-detention-center/

* "‘Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza’ with Peter Beinart:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/being-jewish-after-the-destruction-of-gaza/id1382983397?i=1000703563937

* "How the weaponization of antisemitism is becoming a grave threat to freedom of speech in America:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/how-the-weaponization-of-antisemitism-is-becoming-a-grave-threat-to-freedom-of-speech-in-america-238415941640

* I can't cover all the protests, but here is a small sample.

* "ICE activity at Rhode Island Hospital draws protesters. What we know.:" https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/24/ice-officers-at-rhode-island-hospital-attract-protesters/83254959007/

* "Rally outside New Orleans ICE office draws over 100:" https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/protest-ice-detention-mahmoud-khalil-new-orleans-rally/289-6a6c842a-c15e-433f-8912-2da50e2834bf

* "Protests call for ICE to leave Washington:" https://www.goskagit.com/news/local_news/protests-call-for-ice-to-leave-washington/article_7f4158f8-b34d-4bbc-b968-2efd8903499b.html

* "Federal raid and arrests in Pomona spark concern, outrage in community:" https://ktla.com/news/local-news/federal-raid-and-arrests-in-pomona-sparks-concern-outrage-in-community/

* "Justice Dept. agrees to let DOGE access sensitive immigration case data:" https://archive.ph/pum5L

* At least a judge is intervening here. "Judge bars Trump from denying federal funds to ‘sanctuary’ cities that limit immigration cooperation:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-sanctuary-cities-immigrants-san-francisco-b20f3c9f44e81e2c2cbc248236762ac4

They have started illegally deporting American citizens with no due process, as they promised to do.

* "ICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunicado Prior to the Deportation:" https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ice-deports-3-u-s-citizen-children-held-incommunicado-prior-to-the-deportation

They were denied access to a lawyer, presumably because a preschooler with cancer is such a danger to society that ICE had to throw out the entire constitution.

* Bet they ignored all evidence, them lied when they got caught. "U.S. citizen DHS detained for 10 days has intellectual disabilities, family claims:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-citizen-detained-border-nogales-arizona-dhs-10-days-intellectual-disabilities/

* "U.S. citizen wrongly detained by Border Patrol says government account is false:" https://popular.info/p/us-citizen-wrongly-detained-by-border

* "Congress erupts over FBI arrest of Wisconsin judge:" https://www.axios.com/2025/04/25/fbi-arrest-judge-hannah-dugan-wisconsin-congress

* "Arrest of judge triggers public outrage as Trump escalates his war on the judiciary:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/arrest-of-judge-triggers-public-outrage-as-trump-escalates-his-war-on-the-judiciary-238387781902

* "‘We will find you’: Trump FBI arrests judge in Wisconsin, AG warns more to come:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-we-will-find-you-trump-fbi-arrests-judge-in-wisconsin-ag-warns-more-to-come-238380101651

* "Trump Is Arresting Judges To Send A Message:"

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* "Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy-authoritarianism-competive-survey-political-scientist

* "‘It Sucks!!!’ Trump Bitterly Rages Against Fox News and Calls for Heads to Roll at The Wall Street Journal in Truth Social Tirade:" https://www.mediaite.com/news/it-sucks-trump-bitterly-rages-against-fox-news-and-calls-for-heads-to-roll-at-the-wall-street-journal-in-truth-social-tirade/

* "Trump's second term already falling apart less than 100 days in, polls show:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-s-second-term-already-falling-apart-less-than-100-days-in-polls-show-238312517562

* "‘Unpopular’: Trump whines about Fox News poll showing his approval rating cratering:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-unpopular-trump-whines-about-fox-news-poll-showing-his-approval-rating-cratering-238296645722

* "Thousands of protesters rally against Trump across US:" https://archive.ph/KK2kF

* "PHOTOS: Anti-Trump protesters rally in cities and towns across the country:" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/photos-anti-trump-protesters-rally-in-cities-and-towns-across-the-country

* "Anti-Trump protests sweep the nation, crossing the threshold of mainstream media attention:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/anti-trump-protests-sweep-the-nation-crossing-the-threshold-of-mainstream-media-attention-238047301545

* "Oops!: Trump's first 100 days marked by incompetent screw-ups and frantic walk backs:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/oops-trump-s-first-100-days-marked-by-incompetent-screw-ups-and-frantic-walk-backs-238218821744

* "'Unadulterated disaster': Trump spends first 100 days sabotaging what makes America great:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/-unadulterated-disaster-trump-spends-first-100-days-sabotaging-what-makes-america-great-238224453805

* "Trump facing impotence as courts hand him loss after loss; court of public opinion no less harsh:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-facing-impotence-as-courts-hand-him-loss-after-loss-court-of-public-opinion-no-less-harsh-238316101946

* "Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks and pushback intensifies:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-gets-reckless-as-his-agenda-tanks-and-pushback-intensifies-238390853787

* "Sen. Warren Extended Interview:

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* "Jon Lovett warns Democrats that ‘every inch Trump gets is an inch we don’t get back’:" https://www.advocate.com/news/jon-lovett-warns-trump-authoritarianism

* "'Anyone with a working brain is outraged': Dems react to Trump's first 100 days:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/-anyone-with-a-working-brain-is-outraged-dems-react-to-trump-s-first-100-days-238435909774

* "Rep. Raskin: Trump's first 100 days were 'a horror show,' but Americans are standing up:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/rep-raskin-trump-s-first-100-days-were-a-horror-show-but-americans-are-standing-up-238440517796

* WTF?!? "Trump really showed kids 'assassination trading card' at White House Easter event:" https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-easter-assasination-card/

* "Trump’s made-for-TV cabinet is backfiring:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/trump-s-made-for-tv-cabinet-is-backfiring-238442053542

* "Judge blocks Trump administration from requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-blocks-trump-administration-requiring-proof-citizenship-register/story?id=121134512

* The bribery is completely in the open now. "Dinner with the president: Trump meme coin surges on offer to top buyers:" https://archive.ph/RiOyC

* "Trump dinner for meme coin buyers prompts senators to demand ethics probe:" https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/25/trump-dinner-for-meme-coin-prompts-senators-to-demand-ethics-probe.html

* "Scoop: Musk vs. Bessent dispute erupted into West Wing shouting match:" https://www.axios.com/2025/04/23/musk-bessent-trump-white-house-irs

* "Tesla Stock Dives 6% Ahead Of Possible ‘Code Red’ Earnings For Elon Musk’s Firm:" https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/04/21/tesla-stock-dives-7-ahead-of-possible-code-red-earnings-for-elon-musks-firm/

* "As Tesla profits plunge 71%, Elon Musk says he'll spend less time on DOGE:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5371552/tesla-earnings-april-2025-elon-musk-doge

Who could have guessed that a mostly left electric car buying demographic would not want to associate them selves with NAZI salutes and the Autocratic horrors of DOGE, except everyone with a working brain?

* "Why Elon Musk is the new Mike 'MyPillow' Lindell:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/elon-musk-new-mike-lindell

* "Polling debunks Musk excuse that his unpopularity, collapse of Tesla, is because of paid protesters:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/polling-debunks-musk-excuse-that-his-unpopularity-collapse-of-tesla-is-because-of-paid-protesters-238140485802

* "Musk eyes the exit after humiliating turn in politics: report:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/musk-eyes-the-exit-after-humiliating-turn-in-politics-report-238048325643

* "Trump replaces acting IRS commissioner just days after appointing him:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-replaces-acting-irs-commissioner-days-after-appointing/story?id=120959980

* "Judge blocks mass layoffs at CFPB in the latest twist over the fate of the agency:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/nx-s1-5368206/cfpb-layoffs-rif

* "Trump Team Eyes Politically Connected Startup to Overhaul $700 Billion Government Payments Program :" https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-peter-thiel-ramp-gsa-smartpay-expense-payment-system?

* We warned them and warned them, but most Republican Senators decided to betray their country by putting him in charge of our military.

* "Hegseth had Signal messaging app installed on an office computer:" https://archive.ph/1HA2P

* "'Mindblowing': Hegseth's phone number found all over web, posing massive security risk:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-mindblowing-hegseth-s-phone-number-found-all-over-web-posing-massive-security-risk-238380613558

* "White House backs Hegseth, Leavitt says ‘entire Pentagon’ is resisting him:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/21/leavitt-trump-stands-strongly-behind-embattled-hegseth-00300749

* "Controversial Hegseth chief of staff to leave Pentagon:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/hegseth-chief-of-staff-pentagon-leaving-00308721

* "Former Pete Hegseth aide in op-ed: 'Total chaos at the Pentagon':" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/john-ullyot-op-ed-pete-hegseth-rcna202071

* "Hegseth says staffers found leaking ‘will be prosecuted’ amid Pentagon chaos:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/22/pete-hegseth-leaks-investigation-00302506

* "Third top Pentagon official suspended in leak investigation:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/16/pentagon-official-suspended-leak-investigation-00293473

* "'Purely personal pettiness': Inside the ‘vicious rivalries’ roiling Hegseth’s Pentagon:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-purely-personal-pettiness-inside-the-vicious-rivalries-roiling-hegseth-s-pentagon-238213189802

* "‘Plainly unraveling’: New reporting on chaos at Pentagon under Hegseth:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-plainly-unraveling-new-reporting-on-chaos-at-pentagon-under-hegseth-238125637882

* "Sen. Tammy Duckworth - Veterans Deserve Better than Trump, Hegseth, & DOGE | The Daily Show:"

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* "Veterans Affairs secretary tells employees to report 'anti-Christian discrimination':" https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2025/04/23/veterans-affairs-tells-phoenix-workers-to-report-anti-christian-bias/83220624007/

* ""Do Something Group" rallies in downtown Kalamazoo to protest cuts to veterans' benefits:" https://wwmt.com/news/local/do-something-group-rallies-downtown-kalamazoo-protest-cuts-veterans-benefits-trump-doge-va

* "Trump's DOJ struggles defending trans military ban during D.C. appeals court hearing:" https://www.advocate.com/news/dc-circuit-trans-military-ban

* "Is Pete Hegseth violating judges’ orders blocking the Pentagon’s trans military ban? Senators demand answers:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/senators-hegseth-trans-ban-answers

* "Defense Department reinstates gender-affirming care for trans troops:" https://www.advocate.com/news/trans-troops-care-reinstated

* "Trump AG Pam Bondi falsely compares gender-affirming care for minors as the same as female genital mutilation:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/pam-bondi-targets-transgender-care

* "Trump Retaliates by Taking Kids' Lunch Money (Literally) ft. Liz Dye:"

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* "White House Assesses Ways to Persuade Women to Have More Children:" https://archive.ph/9MfDh

* "Why the White House wanting women to have more kids will lead to outlawing same-sex relations:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/trump-assaults-bodily-autonom

* "Inside the desperate rush to save decades of US scientific data from deletion:" https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250422-usa-scientists-race-to-save-climate-data-before-its-deleted-by-the-trump-administration

* "Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More :" https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-data-collection-hhs-epa-cdc-maternal-mortality?

* "A deadly E. coli outbreak hit 15 states, but the FDA chose not to publicize it:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ecoli-bacteria-lettuce-outbreak-rcna200236

* Censoring facts while promoting conspiracy theories. "'Lab Leak,' a flashy page on the virus' origins, replaces government COVID sites:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/18/g-s1-61324/lab-leak-white-house-covid-origins

* "Health on Wheels van and COVID-19 programs to see reduced services amid grant loss:" https://krcgtv.com/news/local/health-on-wheels-van-and-covid-19-programs-to-see-reduced-services-amid-grant-loss

* "Trump Cuts Threaten Meals and Services for People With Disabilities and the Aging:" https://archive.ph/hOZtg

* "RFK Jr.’s Wish Is Coming True: Everybody’s Getting Measles:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jrs-wish-is-coming-true-everybodys-getting-measles/

* "CDC Reports 800 Confirmed Measles Cases Across the US, 624 Being in Texas:" https://www.contagionlive.com/view/800-confirmed-measles-cases-in-the-us-by-april-18-2025-across-25-states

* "More Americans exposed to false claims about measles and its vaccines, KFF poll shows:" https://archive.ph/PzOHp

* "Millions of U.S. measles cases forecast over 25 years if shots decline:" https://archive.ph/Zk7fq

* "Why ‘Everything is Tuberculosis’ with John Green:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-everything-is-tuberculosis-with-john-green/id1382983397?i=1000701696135

* "US FDA suspends food safety quality checks after staff cuts:" https://archive.ph/df2sT

* "FDA head falsely claims no scientists laid off, as agency shutters food safety labs:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-head-falsely-claims-no-scientists-laid-off-as-agency-shutters-food-safety-labs/

* "I Know It Seems Impossible to Remember, but There Is Actually a Reason We Had an FDA:" https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a64555033/us-fda-quality-testing-milk-fired-workforce/

* "In a reversal, the Trump administration restores funding for women's health study:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/24/nx-s1-5376473/hhs-restores-funding-for-womens-health-initiative

* Why it's important plus some other things. "‘Who voted for this?’: Trump guts first and largest women’s health study:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-who-voted-for-this-trump-guts-first-and-largest-women-s-health-study-238208581957

* But they were. "Health agencies "not creating an autism registry," official says, contradicting NIH director:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-agencies-not-creating-autism-registry-hhs-nih/

* CW: Suicide "HHS Plans to Cut the National Suicide Hotline’s Program for LGBTQ Youth:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/national-suicide-hotline-lgbtq-youth-cuts-rfk-jr-hhs/

* People will die. "Trump Budget Draft Ends Narcan Program and Other Addiction Measures:" https://archive.ph/L4bRd

* "RFK Jr. Is Set to Cut Synthetic Food Dyes From US Food Supply:" https://archive.ph/bX9h5

* "Interior secretary gives DOGE aide sweeping powers to remake department:" https://archive.ph/Bgo1z

* "National Weather Service to resume translating its products for non-English speakers :" https://www.kait8.com/2025/04/25/national-weather-service-resume-translating-its-products-non-english-speakers/

* "Trump’s Most Unhinged Policy May Be Starving MAGA Arkansas of Disaster Relief Snuffing out FEMA is causing some collateral damage.:" https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-huckabee-sanders-fema-arkansas-disaster-relief-denial.html

* "After Arkansas: The Future Of FEMA And U.S. Disaster Relief:" https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexanderpuutio/2025/04/25/after-arkansas-the-future-of-fema-and-disaster-relief-in-america/

* "EPA starts layoffs of environmental justice employees:" https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/epa-starts-layoffs-environmental-justice-employees-rcna202287

* "NWLC Statement on Trump’s Executive Order Seeking to Repeal Core Tenet of Civil Rights Act:" https://nwlc.org/press-release/nwlc-statement-on-trumps-executive-order-seeking-to-repeal-core-tenet-of-civil-rights-act/

* "Trump to target ActBlue in presidential memorandum:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/trump-to-target-actblue-in-presidential-memorandum-00307251

This is the main fundraising vehicle of the Democratic Party. He has no proof. Meanwhile he's using his crypto scam to take direct bribes.

For Republicans, every accusation is a confession.

* "MAGA Is Aiming to Take Over the D.C. Bar. Be Afraid.:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/pam-bondi-legal-news-maga-dc-bar.html

* "DOJ Reverses Grant Cancellations For Crime Victim Support:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/doj-reverses-grant-cancelations-for-crime-victim-support/

* "Trump orders revamp of school discipline policies, college accreditation and funding:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/23/trump-orders-schools-colleges-funding-accreditors-00307055

* "Harvard sues Trump administration over threats to cut funding if demands go unmet:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/harvard-university-sues-trump-administration-threats-cut-funding/story?id=121030309

* "Harvard sues federal government after Trump administration slashed billions in funding:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvard-sues-trump-administration-funding-rcna202276

* "As Harvard fights Trump, one campus quietly prepares for the worst:" https://archive.ph/3UXOo

If you are going to George Washington University, know anyone who is or has gone, or are an Alumni, now is the time to take action to stiffen their spines.

* ""Shocked and Disgusted." UA Democrats respond to news of President Trump at UA:" https://abc3340.com/news/local/shocked-and-disgusted-ua-democrats-respond-to-news-of-president-trump-at-ua-national-news-politics

* "Trump administration to resume collections on student loan borrowers in default:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/nx-s1-5371723/trump-administration-collections-on-defaulted-student-loans

* "Judges blocks Trump push to cut funding to public schools over diversity programs:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-public-schools-diversity-equality-inclusion-dei-7d7ad707d91565753263a19ebde044e0

* "Two major law firms urge judges to permanently block Trump’s executive orders:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-law-firms-perkins-coie-wilmerhale-7dba5f0c38ac547bf3f2bb1f31a2ef38

* "Are Law Firms Breaking the Law by Caving to Trump?:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/are-law-firms-breaking-the-law-trump-deal.html

* "Federal judge blocks Trump administration from dismantling Voice of America:" https://apnews.com/article/voice-of-america-trump-f30c48df0c16de622ec5fd99ee6c627c

* "'60 Minutes' chief resigns, saying show's independence was compromised:" https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5372733/60-minutes-bill-owens-cbs-trump-paramount

* "In unintended filing, federal attorneys poke holes in Trump administration’s effort to end NYC toll:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-nyc-toll-congestion-pricing-6a0a3306f8625474d63c39d75b571521

---

* "BREAKING: Trump Justice Department asks Supreme Court to reinstate trans military ban blocked by courts:" https://www.advocate.com/news/doj-scotus-trans-military-ban

* "Obamacare returns to SCOTUS, with preventive care on the line:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/21/obamacare-scotus-preventive-care-aca-00296631

* "After oral argument, court calls for new briefs in HHS task force case:" https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/after-oral-argument-court-calls-for-new-briefs-in-hhs-task-force-case/

* "The FBI mistakenly raided their Atlanta home. Now the Supreme Court will hear their lawsuit:" https://apnews.com/article/georgia-fbi-raid-supreme-court-lawsuit-9cb55aa6f45bbf02c29d84363c7c9e6f

* "Supreme Court conservatives sympathize with parents objecting to LGBTQ-inclusive books:" https://www.advocate.com/news/conservative-justices-sympathize-religious-objections

* "Compilation of Protests and Actions Against the Supreme Court:" https://whatthetrans.com/compilation-of-protests-against-the-supreme-court/

* "Economic insecurity linked to LGBTQ+ youth mental health issues: Trevor Project report:" https://www.advocate.com/news/economic-insecurity-lgbtq-youth

* The Boycott is working! Keep at it! "Target foot traffic down for 10th consecutive week amid boycott over DEI abandonment:" https://www.advocate.com/news/target-foot-traffic-down-dei

* "Trump, Johnson squelch talk of tax hike for wealthiest Americans:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/23/johnson-doesnt-expect-tax-hike-on-wealthy-in-gop-budget-plan-00306708

* RE: SAVE ACT "Do This Today: Call Senators:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2036106.html

If these are your Senators, please stop what you are doing and call now:

KELLY (AZ)
WARNOCK (GA)
PETERS (MI)
SHAHEEN (NH)
HASSAN (NH)
CORTEZ MASTO (NV)
ROSEN (NV)

* This one is a super dangerous attack on the judiciary's ability to protect citizen's rights. "H.R. 1526: NORRA of 2025:" https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr1526

* "A tax on credit unions is a tax on me.:" https://www.donttaxmycreditunion.org/

* "Nancy Mace calls transgender student a transphobic slur at University of South Carolina event:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/nancy-mace-usc-trans-slur

* "12 batsh*t things Nancy Mace has done in her anti-transgender attention grab :" https://www.advocate.com/voices/nancy-mace-south-carolina-transgender#rebelltitem13

* "Sarah McBride says she won’t let Republicans make her the main character in their anti-trans crusade:" https://www.advocate.com/news/sarah-mcbride-pod-save-america

* "'Welcome to the team': Chris Murphy, Maxwell Frost hold town halls where Republicans won't:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-welcome-to-the-team-chris-murphy-maxwell-frost-hold-town-halls-where-republicans-won-t-238300741912

---

* 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.

* "Take action with Indivisible:" https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/

* 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

* If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options for contacting your Congress Critters:

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/

White house (Possibly Dangerous): https://www.whitehouse.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

Script to complain about Elon Musk/DOGE. I also suggest contacting your AG about data privacy. "Introducing Red State Scripts, Vol. 1:" https://homewiththearmadillo.blog/2025/02/10/introducing-red-state-scripts-vol-1/

* This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/

* "The Public Comment Process (+ how to write effective public comments):" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/781844516804149248?source=share

* "Vote Smart:" https://justfacts.votesmart.org/

* 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/

* Protests: "50501 Events:" https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events

* 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/

* Free Bystander training amoung other useful things. "Right to Be Training:" https://righttobe.org/upcoming-free-trainings/

---

* "Long-running legal saga over N.C. Supreme Court race could pave way for future election challenges, critics warn:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/legal-saga-north-carolina-supreme-court-future-election-challenges-rcna202634

* "Military and overseas voters at center of challenges in Riggs-Griffin NC Supreme Court race:" https://abc7chicago.com/post/military-overseas-voters-center-challenges-north-carolina-supreme-court-race-between-allison-riggs-jefferson-griffin/16209562/

* "How Process is Killing Progress with Ezra Klein:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-process-is-killing-progress-with-ezra-klein/id1382983397?i=1000702661938

* "In unprecedented move, DNC official to spend big to take down fellow Democrats:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/15/david-hogg-dnc-vice-chair-to-spend-big-to-take-down-safe-democratic-incumbents-00292535

* "Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, won’t seek reelection to a sixth term in 2026:" https://apnews.com/article/dick-durbin-senate-reelection-majority-02ff2de634c0e6b62842f80eef01f72e

* "The Democract Doing Trump's Dirty Work:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7fv8fZXjsrA

Coloradans! Pressure him not to veto. Unionization is essential.

* "Tennessee pauses bill targeting right to education regardless of immigration status:" https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-immigration-students-bill-9dfe0022df01d5756384cd5a4a942a24

* Stopped clocks. "North Dakota’s GOP governor vetoes library restrictions, school voucher program:" https://apnews.com/article/north-dakota-governor-vetoes-book-bans-vouchers-a5a52e027a37b14acb55ffae7ec828e3

* "Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety:" https://archive.ph/vsdFG

* "George Santos sentenced to prison:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/george-santos-sentenced-prison

* "Countering DeSantis, $10M Hope Florida donation came from Medicaid, draft shows:" https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/04/22/desantis-casey-medicaid-settlement-hope-charity-andrade/

* Because of course. "George Santos begs Trump for pardon after judge handed down 7-year sentence:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/george-santos-trump-pardon-cameo

* "Senate staffer accused of having sex in Capitol building recounts 'horrific' backlash:" https://www.advocate.com/news/senate-staffer-sex-speaks-out

* CW: Mass Murder. "Car plows through Vancouver Filipino festival, killing at least 11:" https://archive.ph/npHP0

* "What is Lapu-Lapu Day? Filipinos shocked by festival tragedy in Vancouver:" https://archive.ph/jUC0y

---

---

* "Thailand Plastic Waste Law Challenges Developed Nations’ Waste Practices:" https://happyeconews.com/thailand-plastic-waste-law/

* "Behind Closed Doors: The Secret World of Molly Houses in 18th-Century England:" https://gaylifetoday.com/2025/04/21/behind-closed-doors-the-secret-world-of-molly-houses-in-18th-century-england/

* "Weaponization of the FBI from Hoover to Trump 2.0 with Beverly Gage:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weaponization-of-the-fbi-from-hoover-to-trump-2/id1382983397?i=1000700716486

* "Pope Francis dead at 88: Looking back on his LGBTQ+ rights legacy:" https://www.advocate.com/news/pope-francis-dead-lgbtq-rights

* "Pope Francis changed the conversation on LGBTQ+ Catholics—will the next Pontiff hit mute?:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/pope-francis-lgbtq

As a trans person who is not a Christian, I was not a fan and I side eye a bunch of things that happened under his watch as far as cover ups and corruption. That said, he was better than I had any hope of him being and so much better than predecessors in so many ways and on so many issues. He DID represent progress, even though he didn't go as far as one would wish. His anti-authoritarian moves were important.

I am really worried about what comes next.

So many things are getting so much worse. I would love for the catholic Church to keep moving forward, even if not as quickly as I would wish, instead of back sliding into horror.

* "'Evil is being defeated': Marjorie Taylor Greene sparks outrage after Pope Francis' death:" https://www.yahoo.com/news/evil-being-defeated-marjorie-taylor-130338336.html

* "Maddow on Pope Francis, advocate for migrants: 'He changed the world, he changed the church':" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-on-pope-francis-advocate-for-migrants-he-changed-the-world-he-changed-the-church-238046789972

* "Pope Francis’ Legacy of Compassion for Palestinians:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/pope-francis-legacy-of-compassion-for-palestinians-238414917852

* " Blasphemy is coming to St. Peter’s Square as Trump tries to hijack Pope Francis’s funeral to feed his ego:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/donald-trump-pope-funeral-blasphemy

* "Frito-Lay recall: What to know about the Tostitos tortilla chips pulled from shelves:" https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2025/04/09/frito-lay-tostitos-chips-recall/83012547007/

* "Tri-Union Seafoods Issues Recall of Select Genova®, Van Camp’s®, H-E-B and Trader Joe’s® Tuna Cans Due to Clostridium Botulinum Risk:" https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/tri-union-seafoods-issues-recall-select-genovar-van-campsr-h-e-b-and-trader-joesr-tuna-cans-due

* Wednesday, on my way out the door to collect Millennials for group errands, I found a bureaucracy packet. Worryingly, it was not the standard bureaucracy packet. O.o It takes the same documents I already had assembled for the late April or early May bureaucracy, which helps, but also suggests a second, more complicated bureaucracy will arrive soon.

I worked on it the whole time Millennials were here, and finished it, except for the one piece I need someone to print off the computer. Last time I circled and labelled the relevant items on the bank statements and it worked out. It would be better to belt and suspenders it, but in any case I hope to drive the packet and documents up there for copying, stamping, and filing.

I like to turn them in as early as I can just generally, but speed is extra important now, given the givens.

Bonus I have all the items ID number marked so when I have to take them back to the same office within the month that will speed things up a bit on my end. *eye roll*

I did not sort the things assorted people dumped on the floor and shoveled back in the wrong place repeatedly last Summer and Autumn, but I need to. I keep a year of documents out in case there is random surprise bureaucracy in the off season (Which really does happen). I just need to go through them now before boxing them for seven year storage, in case something got in there that shouldn't.

So that's a couple hours, but less urgent.

It did eat my whole evening, alas.

* …And despite the Millennials being told they were cleared to work, they for some reason haven't been reinstated and are not getting paid. Fuckssake!

So phone bureaucracy tomorrow, I guess.

Bonus: I managed to really fuck up my hand about 7 minutes after they left for the night checking if Tavy's pads were dry. Sigh.

* "Jon Stewart on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Deportation and How Trump Fails to Deliver | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "Trump’s Tariffs Ruined America’s Reputation. Does Anyone Still Respect Us? | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "Meet the Scientists Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth to Fight Climate Change | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "Harvey Fierstein to Receive Lifetime Achievement Tony Award:" https://www.theatermania.com/news/harvey-fierstein-to-receive-a-lifetime-achievement-tony-award_1773609/

* "Must-see LGBTQ+ films every straight ally should watch :" https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/gay-movies-for-straight-allies-watch#rebelltitem12

* "Bernie Rocks Coachella:"

( Embed: )

* "Elmo Drops A Trump Diss Track:"

( Embed: )

* Cool Person in need of help. "So, due to a combination of things hitting at once we're overdue on both the electric and gas bills:" https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/3618944.html

* There's this Evangelical sect that makes creepy ass recruitment ads. They have one that uses Depecge Mode's "Personal Jesus."

Me: do they know?

So every time it comes on, my head snaps up, and then I remember it's an evangelical ad and I chuckle to myself.

*****
* 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.

* "United States Disappeared Tracker:" https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/danielleharlow/viz/UnitedStatesDisappearedTracker/Map

* "Nationwide Economic Blackout: Boycott Dates for Target, Amazon, Others:" https://www.newsweek.com/nationwide-economic-blackout-boycott-dates-target-amazon-others-2037986

* "Introducing Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network:" https://aflcio.org/2025/4/16/introducing-rise-federal-workers-legal-defense-network

( More Links Underneath: )

* The aggregate went up late this week because of chaos detailed below. My body is still completely thrashed from the Friday uncleaning. I am doing my best, but only a tiny portion of news made it up.

* "Waterloo university stabbing was ‘targeted anti-LGBTQ+ attack’, police say as suspect charged:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/waterloo-university-stabbing-was-targeted-anti-lgbtq-attack-police-say-as-suspected-charged/

* "Bigots blame stabbing attack in a Canadian University’s Gender Issues class on trans people being too trans in public:" https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2023/06/29/bigots-blame-stabbing-attack-in-a-canadian-universitys-gender-issues-class-on-trans-people-being-too-trans-in-public/

* "Russia conducts tactical fighter jet drills over Baltic Sea:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-conducts-tactical-fighter-jet-drills-over-baltic-sea-2023-06-27/

* "Putin tells rebellious Russian fighters to swear allegiance or leave for Belarus:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/26/putin-rebellion-troops-belarus-00103695

* "Some Russians welcomed Wagner mercenaries who appeared in their streets during brief insurrection:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/europe/russia-wagner-rostov-sympathy-ukraine-intl-cmd/index.html

* "Plot Thickens: Russian Generals Supported Wagner Mutiny but Backed Out – US Intelligence:" https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18817

* "Wagner’s Prigozhin Planned to Capture Russian Military Leaders:" https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/wagners-prigozhin-planned-to-capture-russian-military-leaders-805345cf

* "Putin Moves to Punish Prigozhin Allies:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/world/europe/putin-prigozhin-russia.html

* "Prigozhin May Be Gone, but Not the Failings He Ranted About:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/world/europe/prigozhin-shoigu-gerasimov-surovikin-russia-military.html

* "The poppycock of Myanmar drug suppression:" https://asiatimes.com/2023/06/the-poppycock-of-myanmar-drug-suppression/

* "SNP politicians accuse Tories of ‘rank hypocrisy’ for supporting devolution ‘where it suits them’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/snp-hannah-bardell-gender-recognition-reform/

* "Politician who allegedly said all white men should have Black slave is suspended:" https://thegrio.com/2023/04/14/british-politician-andrew-edwards-white-men-black-slave/

---

* "Ukraine spy chief accuses Russia of 'mining' cooling pond at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-spy-chief-accuses-russia-mining-cooling-pond-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-2023-06-20/

---

* This is a really helpful thing explaining why Biden's wanting bridges without weight restrictions is correct from a civil engineering perspective: https://www.tumblr.com/whovianuncle/721335205966823424/surely-this-is-a-good-idea-that-doesnt-have-the?source=share

* This win was essential for saving democracy and a huge relief. "Supreme Court denies state legislatures the unchecked power to set election rules:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/27/supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislature-theory-00103793

* "Hayes: Supreme Court has ruled against the right’s ‘slow-motion insurrection’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-supreme-court-has-ruled-against-the-right-s-slow-motion-insurrection-185338437718

* "Ketanji Brown Jackson Dismantles SCOTUS Conservatives in Blistering Dissent:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/ketanji-brown-jackson-dismantles-scotus-conservatives-in-blistering-affirmative-action-dissent

* "US Supreme Court's two Black justices clash over affirmative action ruling:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-justices-jackson-thomas-illustrate-heated-us-debate-race-2023-06-29/

* "How Clarence Thomas ‘pulled the ladder up behind him’ on affirmative action:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/how-clarence-thomas-pulled-the-ladder-up-behind-him-on-affirmative-action-185974341842

* "Conservative justices welcome affirmative action—of legacy students:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/joy-conservative-justices-welcome-affirmative-action-of-legacy-students-185984069671

* "Battle for belonging: Steps toward racial progress in U.S. met with pushback: book:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/battle-for-belonging-steps-toward-racial-progress-in-u-s-met-with-pushback-book-185401925504

* "End of affirmative action checks another box on list of long term conservative projects:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/end-of-affirmative-action-checks-another-box-on-list-of-long-term-conservative-projects-186013253633

* "How the repercussions of affirmative action's end will reach far beyond college admissions:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/how-the-repercussions-of-affirmative-action-s-end-will-reach-far-beyond-college-admissions-186014277620

* "Supreme Court: Affirmative Action Is OK — If the Students Are Getting Sent to Die in Wars:" https://theintercept.com/2023/06/29/supreme-court-affirmative-action-military-academy/

* "Biden slams SCOTUS affirmative action decision: 'Discrimination still exists in America':" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-supreme-court-affirmative-action-decision-word/story?id=100491437

* "Why the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action matters:" https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1176715957/why-the-supreme-court-decision-on-affirmative-action-matters

* "Harvard 'legacy' policy challenged on heels of affirmative action ruling:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvard-legacy-policy-challenged-heels-affirmative-action-ruling-2023-07-03/

* "Capitol Hill reacts to Supreme Court rulings:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/capitol-hill-reacts-to-supreme-court-rulings-186388549870

* "Naive emphasis on 'colorblindness' ignores racial reality in U.S.:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/naive-emphasis-on-colorblindness-ignores-racial-reality-in-u-s-186697285583

* "Supreme Court rejects challenge to Jim Crow-era Mississippi voting law:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-jim-crow-era-mississippi-voting-law-rcna85633

* "Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s student debt relief plan:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/30/supreme-court-strikes-down-bidens-student-debt-relief-plan-00104409

* "The Student Loan Case’s Unwilling Participant:" https://prospect.org/justice/2023-06-19-student-loan-cancellation-supreme-court-mohela/

The Republicans sued to end student debt relief on MOHELA's behalf against their will and against their best interests since the state government didn't have standing for the suit, and Republicans Supreme Court justices found for the state anyway because that's how much they hate poor and middle class students having access to college and want to punish them with crushing life long debt for daring to try to get an education.

All precedent and the legal requirement that the people doing the suing have an injury and standing have been thrown out.

* "Elena Kagan Has Had Enough:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/opinion/elena-kagan-dissent-supreme-court.html

* "What is the Higher Education Act —and could it still lead to student loan forgiveness?:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-the-higher-education-act-and-could-it-still-lead-to-student-loan-forgiveness/

* "US Supreme Court says Colorado designer can refuse LGBTQ+ customers: ‘License to discriminate’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/us-supreme-court-lgbtq/

* "The man named in the Supreme Court’s gay rights ruling says he didn’t request a wedding website:" https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-gay-rights-lgbtq-website-385ec911ce0ca2f415966078eddb66da

This doesn't say it invalidates all anti-discrimination laws in this country of any kind, but in effect, it does since there is no limit on who or why you can discriminate against in this ruling.

Bonus points for the woman they found in favour lying in her filings about nearly everything in them, basically. her business is hypothetical. The person she claimed asked for a website didn't and wasn't aware the case was happening or involved him until it was already in front of the Supreme Court, etc.

I don't understand how any of that is legal, but that's just how eager the Republican Partizans on the supreme court are to make all discrimination legal: They ruled in an entirely hypothetical lawsuit about a dispute that didn't exist based on perjured depositions and filings without even informing the other party they were in a lawsuit about a thing they didn't do.

* "Reactions to SCOTUS' major blow to LGBTQ rights:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/reactions-to-scotus-major-blow-to-lgbtq-rights-186388037861

* "Supreme Court rules for Christian mail carrier who refused to work Sundays:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-christian-postal-worker-refused-work-sundays-rcna84868

My assumption is they will use this precedent to allow EMTs, Doctors, hospitals, and pharmacists to deny trans people life saving health care, a thing that is already happening, but not currently legal.

I absolutely think hijabs etc. should be covered under the first amendment and anti-discrimination laws. I do think if Christians get their holidays off so should the rest of us.

it’s different if you say up front you can’t work certain holidays, but for me this is of a piece with the recent SCOTUS decision striking down all anti-discrimination laws.

The web designer one allows people and businesses to discriminate against any one for any reason. They deliberately put no limits on that.

This decision contradicts that, by saying that in the case of Christians, that previous ruling doesn’t apply, since Christians can’t experience any sanctions at all for signing up for a job they then refuse to do.

Sure looks like “rules for thee, but not for me.”

I’d love to be wrong, but I'd rather not bet my life on it next time I have to go to the Christian hospital where they group pray every morning, which is the only one servicing my small city.

* "John Roberts' Supreme Court rolls back civil rights one marginalized group at a time:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/john-roberts-supreme-court-rolls-back-civil-rights-one-marginalized-group-at-a-time-186273349702

* "'Galling': Hayes on the 'imperial mindset' of the Supreme Court conservatives:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-galling-hayes-on-the-imperial-mindset-of-the-supreme-court-conservatives-186215493589

* "Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez call for changes to the Supreme Court:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/02/pressley-aoc-changes-supreme-court-00104537

* "Writers Strike Messaging War Reshapes Standoff With Studios:" https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-strike-messaging-studios-1235523786/

* "Elizabeth Warren, Susan Collins Introduce Tax Bill to Help Married Same-Sex Couples:" https://www.advocate.com/law/elizabeth-warren-refund-equality-act


* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them 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/

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* "America's Family Secret:" https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-slavery-lawmakers/

* "Once a Trump target, arc of the moral universe bends for Yusef Salaam:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/once-a-trump-target-arc-of-the-moral-universe-bends-for-yusef-salaam-185706565996

* "Candidate turns lessons of public, personal struggle into winning platform:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/candidate-turns-lessons-of-public-personal-struggle-into-winning-platform-186699333718

* "RFK Jr. Claims ‘Vaccine Research’ Likely Responsible for HIV and the Spanish Flu:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/robert-f-kennedy-jr-does-vaccine-make-fork-stick-to-me.html

* "The MAGA right is going all in on RFK Jr. That could backfire.:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/robert-kennedy-republican-super-pac-biden-rcna91176

* "DeSantis’s latest appeal to MAGA tops Trump in performative cruelty:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/27/desantis-immigration-border-plan-trump-maga/

* "Pete Buttigieg slams Ron DeSantis for ‘trying to prove his manhood’ with anti-LGBTQ+ video:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/07/03/pete-buttigieg-ron-desantis-anti-lgbtq-video/

* "Lindsey Graham booed, called ‘traitor’ at Trump rally in his home state:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/lindsey-graham-booed-called-traitor-at-trump-rally-in-his-home-state-186648645849

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* "Court upholds sanctions for some − not all − lawyers for suit to overturn Mich. election:" https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/06/23/court-upholds-sanctions-for-only-some-kraken-attorneys/69493140007/

* "Rudy Giuliani interviewed in DOJ probe into 2020 election:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/report-rudy-giuliani-interviewed-in-doj-probe-into-2020-election-185342533732

* "Giuliani, at center of Trump election subversion schemes, spoke with federal prosecutors:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/giuliani-at-center-of-trump-election-subversion-schemes-spoke-with-federal-prosecutors-185703493978

* "WSJ: Giuliani testified for 8 hours in DOJ probe, questioned on Sidney Powell:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/wsj-giuliani-testified-for-8-hours-in-doj-probe-questioned-on-sidney-powell-186650693895

* "Stephanie Grisham: Trump showed secret documents to Mar-a-Lago diners :" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/stephanie-grisham-trump-showed-secret-documents-to-mar-a-lago-diners-186645573966

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* "Senate report blasts intelligence failures ahead of Jan 6; bias, 'chilling effect' noted:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/senate-report-blasts-intelligence-failures-ahead-of-jan-6-bias-chilling-effect-noted-185394757922

* "Man wanted on Jan. 6 charges arrested with weapons near Barack Obama’s Washington home:" https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-insurrection-obama-weapons-857bad453191c67480b020ec0d1f980a

* "Drag Doesn't Kill People — Guns Do:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/drag-queens-guns

* "Baltimore mass shooting leaves 2 dead; half of 28 injured were children:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltimore-police-scene-mass-shooting-incident-media-2023-07-02/

* "In wake of deadly mass shooting in Baltimore, mayor decries ghost guns, trafficking:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/in-wake-of-deadly-mass-shooting-in-baltimore-mayor-decries-ghost-guns-trafficking-186686021667

* "The Disturbing New Face of Mass Incarceration:"

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* "Shipping containers used for Arizona's makeshift border wall are now for sale, but buyer beware:" https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2023/06/30/arizonas-shipping-container-border-wall-boxes-are-now-for-sale/70361464007/

* "Thousands more prisoners across the US will get free college paid for by the government:" https://apnews.com/article/prison-pell-grant-college-graduation-ff3f0b80b5bc0e44dde0408c3dedea19

* "Judge awards a Black church $1M over BLM banner burned by Proud Boys during protest:" https://www.npr.org/2023/07/01/1185630152/judge-awards-a-black-church-1m-over-blm-banner-burned-by-proud-boys-during-prote

* "Georgia teacher faces termination after reading book about acceptance to class:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/georgia-teacher-faces-termination-after-reading-book-about-acceptance-to-class-185672261786

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* "Reproductive rights battle especially poignant in context of Black maternal health:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/reproductive-rights-battle-especially-poignant-in-context-of-black-maternal-health-184461893607

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* "Hundreds detained at banned Pride marches in Turkey: ‘They are aware of our strength’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/27/turkey-pride-arrests-istanbul-izmir/

---

* "Climate Central analysis shows that human-caused climate change is making the near-record heat forecast in large parts of Texas and Mexico at least 5 times more likely.:" https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index-alert

* "Forest fire centre declares 2023 already worst year ever for Canadian wildfires:" https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/06/26/quebec-wildfire-smoke-causes-widespread-smog-warnings-grounds-some-water-bombers.html

* "Canadian wildfire emissions hit record high as smoke reaches Europe:" https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/canadian-wildfire-emissions-reach-record-high-2023-2023-06-27/

* "Rainfall likely won’t be enough to extinguish Quebec wildfires causing US smoke, officials say:" https://apnews.com/article/canada-wildfires-smoke-quebec-rain-a0e287ea5117cccadb9e6917304635ea

* "Air quality plummets as Canadian wildfire smoke stretches across the Midwest :" https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184812177/chicago-detroit-pittsburgh-canada-wildfire-smoke

* "DIY Box Fan Air Filte rDirections:" https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk261/files/inline-files/DIY%20Air%20Purifier%20Directions_English.Spanish_0.pdf

* "Brutal heat wave makes Texas among the hottest places on Earth:" https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/brutal-heat-wave-makes-texas-hottest-places-earth-rcna91584

* "Heat and smoke are smothering most of the U.S., putting lives at risk:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/28/extreme-heat-wave-texas-southern-states/

* Pro-Life Republicans act swiftly to cause more deaths because they believe people aren't dying fast enough. "Workers Die in Texas Heat as Greg Abbott's Water Break Ban Comes Under Fire:" https://www.newsweek.com/workers-die-texas-heat-greg-abbotts-water-break-ban-comes-under-fire-1808610

* "Critics Blast New Law After Dallas Postman Dies Amid Extreme Heat :" https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-usps-worker-dies-in-extreme-heat-critics-slam-hb-2127-16896591

* "35-year-old lineman dies after working to restore power in East Texas :" https://www.ketk.com/news/local-news/35-year-old-lineman-dies-after-working-to-restore-power-in-east-texas/

* "Teen and Stepfather Die on Hike in Near-Record Texas Heat:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/us/texas-heat-hiker-deaths.html

* "Inmates are dying in stifling Texas prisons, but the state seldom acknowledges heat as a cause of death:" https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/local/texas/inmates-are-dying-in-stifling-texas-prisons/503-810c66fc-2bf2-4b7c-946f-c1cbac2ad58e

* What would Jesus do? Deny prisoners succor so that they die locked up in oven like conditions they can't escape. "Push to put air conditioning in Texas prisons fails:" https://www.corsicanadailysun.com/news/push-to-put-air-conditioning-in-texas-prisons-fails/article_257e94fe-0b00-11ee-a1ea-8bf9f4e3447f.html

* "Solar power proves its worth as heat wave grips the state:" https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/28/texas-solar-power-grid-heat-wave/

* "Gov. Greg Abbott vows to exclude renewable energy from any revived economic incentive program:" https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/chapter-313-texas-renewables-economic-development/

Solar Energy is saving Texas' butt right now and keeping their crappy proprietary grid afloat, but in March Republicans decided doubling down on the oil and gas industry while planning to make renewable energy harder to develop in order to make everything so much worse.

* "As Texans suffer in the heat, state Republicans play politics:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/as-texans-suffer-in-the-heat-state-republicans-play-politics-185722949628

* "Heat wave hits Southern California with a scorching Fourth of July weekend:" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-30/heat-wave-southern-california-fourth-of-july-weekend

* "The Titan Submersible Was “an Accident Waiting to Happen”:" https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-titan-submersible-was-an-accident-waiting-to-happen

---

* "It's Called Micro Metro:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O-ZiycBMULI

* "National Geographic magazine has laid off the last of its staff writers:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/media/national-geographic-magazine-staff-writers/index.html

* "We Cleaned Up The Ocean Floor At 40 Meters Depth:"

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* "How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now:" https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now

* "Google Says It'll Scrape Everything You Post Online for AI:" https://gizmodo.com/google-says-itll-scrape-everything-you-post-online-for-1850601486

* "A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html

* He was incredibly talented. I loved him particularly in naked Lunch, Warlock and Impromptu, but he was in so many things. It's terrible he's gone, but at least the family have him back to mourn properly. In my experience, waiting is worse than knowing. "Julian Sands’ remains found in Mt. Baldy area, San Bernardino officials confirm:" https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-27/julian-sands-remains-found-mt-baldy-san-bernardino

* "Bonus 4: Queering the Gothic:" https://www.scribd.com/podcast/655892341/Bonus-4-Queering-the-Gothic-Stephen-interviews-Dr-Jamie-Bernthal-Hooker?irclickid=3kxxPHRpOzhvU%3A11aUXpLwX1UkF2jZSFRRYS3E0&irpid=2003851&utm_source=impact&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=affiliate_pdm_acquisition_Bing%20Rebates%20by%20Microsoft&sharedid=bing&irgwc=1

* "Good Omens Parody by The Hillywood Show®:"

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* Tuesday I went to the Doctor and had a blood draw. She's mostly caught up. Nothing can likely be done about the allergy treatments unless I want to day trip to Everett every two weeks starting in September, but i am so tired and the pain meds make me even more so. there is concern about no meds causing heart palpatations, but we are going to try a pill twice a day anyway, so i can get coverage in my sleep. Let us all hope I don't start hallucinating.

Given the hallucination risk I stayed at minimum for the Wednesday errands as the last thing I wanted was to start hallucinating while driving.

Some sort of blight has hit one of the garden tubs, but only one species of volunteer plant, which we removed in hopes it isn't in the soil and hasn't spread to the others. The other volunteers and the thing that actually is meant to be growing there look okay, but we are going to try to identify the species of ick, in case we need to sterilize and start over. I will be pissed if that's the case as it's one of the big whiskey barrel planters with the most expensive things in the garden in it. *fingers crossed*

Wednesday was the first day I woke up with bad collapsey legs since I started the new meds and on the scale of bad legs it was about medium. My arms we ironically less collapsey than average for the last week.

Bodies are weird.

* I think I need to tell you about the Cleaner, because OMG, but for that you will need context on my pain/meds situation.

So less pain does not remotely equal no pain. My hip joints were a mess Wednesday, and only a little better Thursday. My shoulder joints, and thus my arms, started to go bad Thursday. The fundamental things wrong with my body aren't fixable, but the new meds are doing a stellar job on what I think of as the secondary pain, IE: everything else not joint or tendon or in their immediate vicinity. It is far more effective than the muscle relaxants I've been using for decades at this since it's hitting the nerves and not just the muscles. It also adds to the tired. So much to the tired. Bonus: on the new dose, I get dizzy if I don't rest enough, and the heart palpitations hit longer and harder when they hit.

Dramatically better means for an extreme chronic pain/chronic illness perspective, not from a remotely healthy person's perspective, if you follow. I was into about a month of unbearable torment when we tried the one pill dosage. I'm still not sure my system can handle the two pills, and I plan to stick to this dose. They are supposed to last eight hours, but I get an extra four hours of partial coverage per pill, and like I said the side effects are scaling up on me.

So right now my balance sucks, I'm exhausted, and my shoulder joints scream at me if I try to do anything remotely strenuous with them, you follow?

So far I've had four different cleaners turn up, two of them twice. Three of those are hard and thorough workers. One of those will not wear her mask. I put up with it because I am wearing mine and turn on all the fans and I'm scared if I don't take her, no one will come. (see five skipped cleaning appointments in a row).

Cleaning is a hard fucking job and they are underpaid, get no benefits, no set hours, and have to pay their own travel costs including for the ferry if they are coming from the reservation and that is a lot of gas. I respect cleaners. I've done it, after all, amoung the many shit jobs I had over the years. I trust them to know what they are doing. This has been the case in three instances. Most of the conversation with those three cleaners has been things like: Where does this go? Where is (whatever) kept? What should i do next? I refuse to micro manage. In my experience, micro managing is dramatically less efficient and just insults the person doing the job. I know I hated it, when I was the person being micro-managed. This works great for Goth Millennial and for the other three cleaners on the other four occasions.

I'm sure you are sensing the big but here.

So the cleaner who came today, turned up the other time she was here high as a kite. I don't mean a little buzzed, which is fairly normal in this town and this state. Weed's been legal here for ages. People with shitty service jobs occasionally come to work a schootch high. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if, say, your barista's a little buzzed. I don't partake myself for a host of reasons, but most of my friends since... I'm going to say 1985, have/do. A little high is no big deal.

Orbiting Pluto without a suit is. She was way out of it girl at a party who's friends have to watch her like a hawk high. She was barely coherent high. She drove here. O.o. She drove home. This terrifies me. after some consultation with my friends including them seeing the mess she made and me acting out vignettes, our best guess is she must have dramatically misjudged an edible. (It had to be vape or edible. I would have smelled smoke. Edible makes the most sense for both the degree of Jesus fuck high and the thinking she was fine when she left home, but waaaay not fine when she got here. Surely she would have cancelled otherwise, right?).

So basically instead of my working away at the aggregate or tumblr queue programming or whatever, it was a lot like baby sitting a toddler who would not shut up, only the toddler would make more sense and the mess would have likely been confined to things in a toddler's reach. I had to go around after she left and actually use the forbidden to me for safety reasons ladder to save a bunch of my cups and glasses from the accident I could see happening the second Squirrel opened a dish cupboard because he had jammed them in their so precariously that the door was the only thing preventing them falling. Goth Millennial came the next day and had to take everything out and restack it. I could live with the fitted sheet being inside out, so we left that for today.

I did not turn her in to the asshole agency because 1. worker solidarity. I never went to work on a substance, but I've worked so, so many shit jobs and the Asshole Agency is terrible. 2. I was pretty sure it was a mistake involving an edible. 3. I was big on giving people another chance when I was teaching. On fuck up shouldn't lat for ever unless that fuck up was malicious or really damaging to other people.

Well, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.

No, she was not noticeably high this time, though I couldn't rule a mild buzz out. She also had a shamefaced and subdued demeanor that clearly told me she knew how badly she'd fucked up last time. She said she'd signed up for me on purpose instead of her other option because I was really nice to her and my apartment was full of interesting things to look at while she cleaned. My apartment is full of interesting things to look at and I suspect she liked me because I was consistently kind to her when she was a mess last time and hadn’t turned her in. She really is sweet and nice and she is clearly trying her best but not remotely the sharpest tool in the shed. Which can be fine. I've known a lot of good workers over the years with significant developmental or accident related challenges and they did fine. She wasn't in that category, but I realized she'd need extra supervision compared to the others. I underestimated how much.

She did walk right up to Tavy and start petting him right away like last time which again confused and alarmed him. Sure, Squirrel and I and a couple of the Millennials can do that because we are his particular friends, but he barely knows her and and she would NOT stop doing that last time no matter how many times I told her he was a biter and apt to maul when he was worked up. I was so proud of him because he did not attack her the first three times, and honestly the forth time, I would have bitten her too in his place.

Tavy was noticeably wary of her. He did want to watch what she was doing, but he remembered her. (By contrast, the other cleaners he'd watch from a distance for a while, and then follow around and in a couple cases, get me to pick him up so he could get a better look. He really took to the GNC person who came once, and kept sniffing their legs). He did let her pet him without biting her, and she was together enough to stop when I told her he was down, and leave him alone for the rest of the two hours when I said he was in a mood to hang out and watch but not interact.

I got her through the linen change okay and last time she was so high she forgot we had a dishwasher after she'd emptied it and it took her most of her shift except the linen change, but the dishes looked and smelled clean, so I set her to that and did not remotely supervise her enough. This I did not discover until evening, but we'll get to that.

Then I set her to sweep and mop, which... Like I've worked a lot of restaurant jobs, often with people in a supported worker with severe intellectual challenges. I've never seen one who'd been doing it for years who couldn't do it correctly. She said she'd been doing this for several years.

Assuming makes an ass out of me, doesn't it?

Oh gods the mess she made! I should have known it was too hard for her when she started prepping for mopping before sweeping. So I told her to sweep first, which she did. I told her to dump the water in the sink, not the tub, which turned out to be very, very lucky. (The tub is the most expensive thing I own. A city program that remodels for elderly and disabled people paid for it. I will never be able to afford to fix or replace it. There are super strict cleaning directions for a reason, because the mechanism is delicate.) I told her to use the liquid all purpose cleaner under the sink. I should have got it out and prepped the bucket myself, but bending hurts and I was exhausted and dizzy and my arm situation was deteriorating. I should have done it anyway, because this is So. Much. Worse.

She used a ton of water. Like way, way to much water in a way that suggested she did not wring the mop and/or she was dumping puddles out of the bucket. It was a terrifying fall risk situation because this was the end of her shift and I really really needed to get ready for bed as soon as she left and forage delivery was late so I had to go drag it in, just as I'd given up and settled into bed. So I'm dizzy with unreliable legs, using both hands and going careful back and forth over this swamp of a floor with a weird gritty, soapy texture. Which is... not what you want in a cleaner for elderly and disabled people. I could fall and end up in the hospital under those conditions. And it;'s not like I could want a couple hours for it to dry. There was no point in washing my feet in the bathroom, so I kept using wipes on them before getting into bed.

Then I woke up to pee and realized just how bad it really was. *head desk* My best guess is she used Ajax, which is stored under a bookshelf in the bathroom, not under the sink. Like a TON of Ajax. The kitchen sink and nearby counter was caked with it and the floor was tacky and gritty and full of muddy footprints. I couldn't leave it like that. I cleaned the sink. I took the other mop with the disability friendly easy to wring it out attachment which had been to complicated for her head and wet mopped it all again, frequently rinsing and wringing it out, until my arms basically gave out and I had to wash up and take a nap.

It's still incredibly dirty. I feel like crying, because I can't feel clean unless my feet are. I've been skating around on damp towels, but though my hip joints are a lot better this evening, I wear out fast and it hurts quite a bit if I do it too much. I hate leaving a terrible mess like this for the millennial, but I simply can't mop any more with these arms. I'd have been so much better off giving her something else to do, but I couldn't think of anything else simple enough for her, and I know from last time she will not leave early no matter how much I tell her she can just clock out at the end of the hour.

At this point I was debating what to do. I had settled on calling Monday and asking them to put her on my no list without giving a reason, because I simply can't go through this again. It's too hard on my body and it's incredibly could seriously injure me dangerous.

Then I went to feed the Empress Livia and discovered something worse.

I'm medically fragile. Amoung so many other things, I have an immune system that is far more interested in own goals than fighting pathogens. I can and will catch anything you expose me too. Anything. I also have a dicey digestive system. Anything I use to prepare food or eat or drink needs to be really fucking clean. We prewash for grease and stuck on food then run them through the washer to make sure the soap and anything else is off. yes, I know this is bad for the environment as it uses extra water, but it’s a serious safety issue for me.

I was very, very clear on directions because I remembered last time. “Wash the dishes and then put the in the dishwasher. The dishes in there are dirty, so don’t put them away. I will run the washer after you leave.” Did she do that? No. Were the dishes cleaned and dried, which would be reasonably acceptable as an alternative? No. They were jammed in with the clean dishes, soaking wet and covered in soap bubbles six or seven hours after she left. We'll have to go through all the pans tomorrow. I pulled the pans and dishes I remembered were in the sink yesterday. I have no way of guessing with the glasses and flatware and I don't know which things Squirrel put in there.

I am exhausted and I hurt and I've been pushed way past the limit of what my body can handle in a day and I can't trust my dishes or the glass I'm drinking out of and I can't get the dirty Ajax grit off my feet. I'm going to go take a bath, but my feet will be dirty again the second I touch the floor.

She's another poor person. I feel like a class traitor just putting her on my no list, but she could theoretically kill an elderly person with her mopping, and I can't decide if I should say something, because anything I do will be a terrible option.

This person literally uncleaned my apartment. I just....

Look, I know it’s a free service, but this is so very much worse than when they don’t send anyone.

* Squirrel was horified because he works with elderly people and he knows better than anyone that falls kill. He insisted I call right away about her. Squirrel: Even I know not to use Ajax on floors!

It turns out they take calls on the weekends. I admit i broke down a bit. My arm was screaming at me and we are looking at weeks of cleaning to get all the Ajax up. It turns out they literally don't fire people for any reason so ethically I feel a lot better about calling, but at the same time she could literally kill an elderly person and also they could send someone even more dangerous because there is no check on that. O.o. so she's blocked on the app from seeing my jobs. I ordered an extra cleaner, but I don't really think they'll send one. IDK.

I spent hours last night trying to fix it last night. Goth millenial spent hours on it today. It still is incredibly dirty. I'm scared the cats are eating the Ajax dirt that clings to their paws. Tavy is really traumatized and wouldn't even let Goth millenial pet him today and he mostly avoided the other millenials who were here breifly. he keeps needing reassurance cuddles and held blerpfest last night in the living room. I don't blame them.

At lets cancelling five times in a row wasn't actively destrucxtive. This was. It was so very very destructive.

It is freaking me out that shge's out there driveing, that she's likely endangering other people and their pets with the uncleaning.

Bonus: She waited long enough to clock out after i told her to clock out that her five minute delay stoole a half hour of cleaning from me.

* Sunday I took some of the Millennials for swimming/picnic at the Lake for the first time this season. I got to watch New Millennial fall in love with the PNW landscape exactly the way I did more than thirty years ago.

You can really tell which of us grew up with cold Northern Ocean. Me: wading steadily deeper and deeper once I'm far enough in to keep my balance by my self on the rocks and the bottom gets a little smoother, then slowly swimming out a little deeper in search of the warmer tide. (It's a run off fed lake, and the mixing of the cold inflow with the water that's been in the lowlands long enough, makes these weird little temperature striations you can very much feel even after you cold adapt). Everybody Else: Wading crotch deep and thinking for a while about whether they want to swim after all, then going way slower and stopping a lot to rethink.

I love my Millennials. The other two each had one of the newest Millennial's arms to help them over the rocks because the rocks suck and I'd forgotten to warn them. Me, urging them on: Keep coming! I found the warm current! New Millennial: Looking concerned this might be hazing, followed by the moment of delight and surprise on finding I was not. Look, it's only like ten or fifteen degrees on a good day, but it does make a difference and the activity of swimming or treading water and the adaptation once you go up to your neck and then duck your head, all add up. You just need to get into a sweet spot.

I discovered on the way back that my fucked up arms really, really don;t want to do backstroke. I managed a lopsided curve towards shore until I was far enough in to pull along the rocks with my hands and kick. So Goth Millennial is hanging close on the way to the shallows, because I can't really get out safely by myself and need help getting up onto my feet and staying there until I'm reasonably sure they are working, at which point either Goth Millennial (or Techie Millennial, who couldn't come), would grab my crutch so I could use it and their arm to get out onto the "beach."

My crutch was not where I left it. My crutch was not anywhere nearby where someone might have moved it if it were in the way of say launching a jet ski from the wrong stretch of "beach" instead of the boat and jet ski launch area. I mention jet skis as their were two anchored in the swimming area where they were not meant to be we we arrived, one of which way out past the swim buoys where it was meant to be, and the other parked on the "beach" where it emphatically should not be, surrounded by mostly kids, obscuring view of the corner where the "beach hits the cit off with the higher land and grass. But I hadn't gone near that, and I needed the crutch to get out to look to see if the crutch was there.

I am still angry about that fad a decade or so ago when asshole able bodied art students would steal poor people's wheelchairs for shitty "art projects" and then brag about it on line as if stealing an expensive thing someone couldn't afford to replace and stranding them somewhere like a park or a bathroom or an inaccessible public building was something virtuous and clever instead of an incredibly cruel things to do to someone, as if their crap project was worth more than someone else's independence. My crutch is basically one of my legs. Someone's wheels are their legs.

Every time I go into the water anywhere, I know there is a chance someone will steal my crutch. This is the PNW, and I think someone leaving a mobility aid next to the water makes sense to the ableds, whereas someone leaving a wheelchair on the pavement in a park doesn't for some asshole shitty lack of empathy and imagination neurotypical reason, I guess.

So I'm starting to get really upset and Goth Millennial is really worried and we are having a loud conversation along the lines of Me: shit! I can you see my crutch anywhere? I left it right there. I think someone may have stolen !it! Millennial standing up and going to look across the bad rock stretch craning their head around to see if some asshole maybe put it on the grassy bit above the cut: I can't see it! It's not there!" Middle School age, glaring resentfully at one of the younger kids, stomps around to the other side of the illegal parked jet ski, where we had zero chance of seeing it, retrieves it and hands it to me. Me: you're very kind! Thank you! Goth Millennial hoists me to my feet while I use their arm and the crutch to just barely get my balance. This is a complicated and painful procedure, returning to gravity after freedom, and I need to stand their awhile like two or three feet away from Asshole Jet Ski Extended family. These kids just stare at me the whole time we are doing this. It is very, very obvious that my normally invisible disability is very, very real. Grumpy teen in charge to a younger kid: You better go apologize. No one apologizes. They keep staring at us hobble slowly and carefully up the shallow stairs. After I went to pee and wash lake water off my hands before eating, I went to set my crutch down by my chair and all this water poured out of it. I'd left it on dry land.

Asshole Family who was too privileged to use the boat and jet ski launch who thus had to drive their jet skis through the swim area had stolen my fucking crutch to play with in the water and the missing adults and the grumpy teen in charge had let them, and then they hid it behind their angled jet ski so no one could see it afterwards. They could have lost it in the lake. They could have kept it.

We found out when our friends came out of the water that they’d also stolen and hid our blind friend's flip flops, which they grudgingly had returned when it was clear they were hers.

Rich people are the worst.

So we go get dinner stuff at the grocery store and drop a Millennial off and I'm in my kitchen searching for my reusable straws, of which I own four. I have one I was using for lemonade which I put in the refrigerator last night. I had assumed the other three were in the wash or something up until now, but I searched the dishwasher and they weren't there. All the flatware are in the dishwasher except the chopsticks and some specialty use items, since we didn't know which the Asshole Cleaner hadn't cleaned properly before putting back. we’d emptied the trays. I search there and around there anyway. There are no reusable straws in the kitchen except the one I was drinking out of Friday when Asshole Stoner Cleaner was uncleaning the apartment.

The time she was here high as a kite she kept wiggling them and shouting "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" She was obsessed with them. They were a gift from Goth Millennial. I don't think they were that expensive, but they were cute and had a nice texture and are earth friendly. (Some people can't use reuseable straws for a bunch of reasons and we have emergency plastic straws here. This is not any sort of judgement on people who use single use. Let's ban fishing industry plastics which are most of the ocean plastic pollution before going after disabled people's straws, okay?)

I think the only reason she didn't steal the forth straw was it was right next to me so I could poke it up under the mask for brief sips. I'd left it and the cup in the fridge because I don't like to put them to wash until I see a new clean straw I can use in situations like this or when my arms are bad, and it's easier and safer to hold the cup low, or sometimes just because. They are reusable! It hurts nothing. I wanted a straw because my body wasn't working and I wanted to drink the juice I'd bought for dinner while lying down and waiting for things to stop hurting so much.

There is zero chance the other three are still here.

I had checked my bedroom right after she left for small, easily stealable things missing from the bookshelf where I put curios right after she left because the comment about my interesting things felt like something a person might say anyway, but also a things someone who might pocket once would say and I was already upset and wary of her because of everything. There are things it would be hard to check, like my BPAL Collection, but odds are she wouldn't steal those. She'd have had to climb on the bed and go through the little boxes and she was only unsupervised in there for a few minutes with the sweep and mop. I will need to see if she stole the bottle where I keep a few tramadol in case I wake up unable to get out of bet or occasionally, even roll over without an hour or more of slow, excruciating effort. While they clean, I'm sitting at my desk right next to the bottled meds collection that mostly feed assorted pill organizers, and the shelf above where the things I need to grab quick in an emergency are not surprisingly untouched. If anything had been stolen when I got up to go to the bathroom the parent tramadol bottle would be easiest to raid and the only really attractive thing to steal except throat pearls, and you'd have to know what they were and they are not recreational, just a little expensive and perscription. The altar and display shelf over the sofa seems fine, and she definitely didn't go in grabbing distance anyway.

When I went into the bathroom to bathe the lake water away, I noticed some small things missing. One of them I'd assumed was in the wash, but I have done a bunch of laundry over the weekend since the Ajax tainted clothes get washed separately and I don't want the dye to be leached by cleanser by letting them sit unwashed, and we have to wash the mop head by itself between uses to get all the ajax out. It's not in the wash. It's gone, a small, very useful thing. Nothing expensive is missing that I've noticed yet, but I haven't properly inventoried all the otc things and the prescription ointments and such, but I'm guessing those wouldn't be attractive. I doubt she'd steal books. She didn't strike me as a reader, but when I am in less pain and less exhausted, I'll inventory them better.

Asshole. Fucking asshole.

I know it could have been worse. Every little curio and most of the art except some things in the bathroom that are there because of the risk of steam or water damage have a story. They were given to me by friends or lovers or made by me when my hands still worked right or purchased at particular events or on particular occasions. These are memories and irreplaceable regardless because they are mostly hand made or limited edition from conventions.

We don't have money for replacing straws right now. They haven't paid Goth Millennial for a month and a half, not even for the supposedly paid training sessions. I owe money to the Honest Mechanic for the third time in three months and am about to burn two thirds of my bill money tomorrow on that, because you never ever fuck over a small business, just like you never ever fuck over another poor person. (I don’t steal, but I think ethically, stealing from a big chain to feed your kids is okay, and very much better than letting you kids starve, especially given the wage theft and lobbying against the social safety net and minimum wage those chains do. They steal from the poor, particularly their workers and if they hadn’t paid politicians to do things that prevent people from having enough to eat, then which is the bigger evil? Mom and pops? Family Businesses? Little micro businesses and artists and what have you? Never, ever okay. Small businesses are the life blood of a community online and RL, and letting me defer payment is a major fucking favor, so they are next after housing, whatever happens to my other bills. The other few things I spotted are replaceable if we had money for it.

I am so fucking angry anyway. I already felt my home was desecrated by her uncleaning it and distressing Tavy and the all over fuckery of it, but this small thing, this thing that wouldn't matter if I were a little better off or they weren't a gift, but feel like a big thing when added to all the rest.

It takes a lot to make me hate someone. We are not there yet, but if I do find something important I overlooked gone, I will, much like I still hate the ex-friend from first college who took three important things with sentimental value that were/are irreplaceable when he dropped out. This is how he became an ex-friend. He knew that the plaque was the last thing the artist my first freshman lover bought it from made and that it had a bunch of layered meanings in what was written on it. The things he stole from me and another friend were like that. Very personal and chosen with surgical precision to cause the most distress. (He did other, worse things, then made sure everyone thought, I’d done them and I was a monster. none of this we found out until he’d gone and we none of us could figure out why. Okay, the terrible things he needed someone to frame, but the rest... Sociopathy was the best guess for all of it really. Last I checked he was still working with children and there was fuck all provable we can do about it, but he really, really shouldn’t have been working with children). These things the Uncleaner stole were small, replaceable things, not something where there is no other one even if memories weren’t attached.

All the things missing I've looked for off and on since the time she was here high, under the belief they were misplaced or in the wash. I wouldn't be surprised if that's when she took them and that's part of why she was so embarrassed the second time, but if she were really embarrassed she could have brought them back then and I'd never have known. Like, she could have tossed them into one washer or the other, or tucked them around the sink, and I'd have just thought that was where they were.

I know the Asshole Agency will do fuck all, but I'm going to call them anyway. Goth Millennial said before we knew about the theft that she was the one who was a class traitor, because you don't do shit like this to another poor person. I have no idea when my apartment will actually be clean again. I'm doubting that an extra two hours this week even if someone turns up will do it.

We are still baffled by the thought process.

If she'd put the dishes into the dishwasher like I'd asked, it would have been fine and not tons of extra time and work cleaning everything. I still need to sit on the kitchen floor in the Ajax to go through all the pots and pans in case the extra cleaner does come. If she'd rinsed and dried them before putting them away, it would have been not ideal, but likely fine. She did neither for no reason we can understand. Putting them away wet and soapy was actually more work than racking them in the dishwasher like I asked.

Not only was the bottle of liquid all purpose cleaner right in front when I opened the cabinet under the sink to hand it to Goth Millennial Saturday when they decided wet mopping wouldn't be enough, there was a literal second full bottle behind it because I hate running out of things so I tend to buy two at once if I have enough cash for it and the trip to get the one I like that is effective but doesn't make bad smells is annoying if I don't want a big mark up. It was right there. couldn't have missed it if she'd opened the compartment. To get at the Ajax I use only for the toilet, she had to go past the dish soap for the sink and tub and the shampoo and conditioner I bought before the engine light went on last month. She could have used the dish soap and it would have been not ideal, but fine except for all the extra water. A wet mop after she left would have solved it. She had to go on her hands and knees and move things to get the Ajax. Following directions was Easier. Asking me to get it if she somehow couldn't recognize it as a bottle of liquid cleaner was easier. Getting about a third to a half of a big cylinder of Ajax out of those small holes was definitely harder than doing it properly.

WTF!?!

I get that stealing small stuff you don't need is actually a symptom of mental illness that requires therapy she likely can't afford, and given how high she was she really had no observable impulse control I could see, hence her repeatedly stopping work to pet a cat I'd warned her not to, and the 'wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, and all the many other things. This is the only explicable part of it. Like I get it. If that's all she'd done I would have been mildly miffed and reported and blocked her because I don't like people stealing my stuff and she might take something from someone else they couldn't eventually replace, but I wouldn't be this kind of furious. A compulsion to steal and/or walking away with something because one is borderline incoherent high and then going oops later are pretty easy to understand motivation wise.

Doing all this extra work to do so much damage to someone you barely know makes zero sense. I was nice to her! I sent her home with a big bag of food each time! We none of us think this was malice. It can't be laziness as this took so much extra work than not doing damage would. so seriously WTF, with the dishes and the Ajax? This question haunts us all.

UPDate: Asshole Agency now says they will file a ticket and investigate. I trust nothing they say, as they've lied to me before, most recently Saturday, when they claimed there was nothing to be done except blocking her from coming here. Today's guy says they weren't supposed to blow be off like that and their is a system. There is no way to tell which of them is lying. I hope the ticket system is not fictional like half of their cancellation calls and I hope there is an investigation system that is not made of bullshit and rubber stamps. That would be nice.

It really does scare me should could accidentally kill someone or their pets and it worries me she's out their in the homes of vulnerable elderly people who may not have a support system to handle the devastation. I'm still having trouble turning my head and lifting a full glass of liquid with my dominant arm above my shoulder. I don't know what long term health effects the Ajax will have on the cats. Livia's on a special diet for her urinary system. I did not fall and I could hide in my bed until all the water dried. The stuff she stole was small and that big a deal. I have Goth Millennial and to a lesser extent the others to help me clean up, but this is exhausting them. None of them have to do that and I appreciate that so much.

If I were older though? I could have broken a hip or had a serious head injury with no one to help.

It still freaks me out she was driving like that the previous time.

I've done a whole lot of shit jobs out of poverty. I have never harmed someone like she harmed me. I never would. I hate that I am harming her now, by reporting, but I had to try to protect whoever next after me. I hate the Asshole Agency. I hate them for the terrible way they treat the cleaners and whole fucking gig economy, and the predatory capitalism that makes this the business model now, and the shiftiness of it all. I wonder how many people before me tried to report her and how many gave up trying to get the asshole agency to care and just blocked her. Did she trash anyone's home before mine?

This was supposed to be extra help, but this is so much harm, so much extra pain, so much extra stress. Medicare pays them money to send untrained, unvetted people into the homes of vulnerable adults run by an agency who's first recourse is to lie to you if you complain about anything, and only calls you half the time to tell you the cleaner cancelled.

I am tired of being upset about all this. It will hard to be not upset about it until my apartment is clean and smells normal again. The chemicals give me a headache, which does not help either.

* On Monday night the extra cleaner I ordered for Tuesday called. They generally do this to check in. i tell them where to park and to call on arrival so I can pop out and wave them in and that they should wear a mask and headphones atre fine if they want to wear them. I began to hope a cleaner really would turn up despite the holiday.

An hour before the scheduled time of arrival, the Asshole Agency called, because they couldn't reach the cleaner. Me: she called last night. Everything seemed fine. Them: do you know how to reach her? Me: No. O.o

She was a couple minutes late, having taken the wrong entrance to my apartment complex, which happens a lot. It was fine. I explained the situation with dishes and floors. she did all the dishes and followed directions. She actually solved the floors with time to spare. O.o. i'll feel better with an extra mopping in the bathroom, but the Ajax spell is gone and she even got the caked crust around the edges in the bathroom. Then she took out the trash and organized the pots and pans, which have been a mess since the silverware drawer broke.

She was respectful of Tavy's space, which was a huge help, since the Uncleaner traimatized him to the point he's having his nightmares again. Livia hid of course, sensible girl.

Goth Millenial wanted to come hang out, so I went and got them. We had a nice dinner and watched Dark Winds. This is a rewatch for me, but they'd only seen the first episode. It's both worth a rewatch and the new season starts soon, so the timing is excellent. Tavy was so worn out from supervising the cleaner from afar, he slept through the visit.

After Lung Time Livia came out of hiding for a love and a snack, just in time for them all to be panicked by fireworks in the parking lot. They both Noped odff to their hides for hours. Livia only came out a couple hours later. She got a love and a snack, and then the fireworks started again, luckily not nearly as loud, so at least Tavy was okay.

The imperial couple decree no more fireworks ever, please.

The Ajax took the shiny protective layer off the flooring, which makes me sad, but I suspected this would be the case when I realized what she'd done to me.

Otherwise, things are normalish here at the cat asylum. It was almost midnight as I wrote this and the wind from Alaska is finally blowing the smell of Canada burning out of our little valley by the bay.

I would like to thank the donor who paid for the latest car repair and to anyone who chipped in in the last slightly over a year and a half when the catastrophic string of things falling apart including two appliances, an apartment electrical system, my teeth, A fire alarm, a tire, and.... Was it five car repairs on my aged and slowly failing vehicle?

I would like to thank you all for the kind words and support you all give me. I notice and it does matter.

* A thing I wrote for Tumblr on the evening of the 4th:

I have a lot of new followers who joined in the last year. You may have noticed that my 4th of July programming is not what one might expect from an American. It is deliberate. I think it is more valuable to see the country for what it is, what’s best and most important about it and fight for what it could be than to bellow self congratulatory platitudes wrapped in a flag.

The fight has gotten so much harder in the last 7 or so years, but it always was hard. Those of us who could never afford the rose colored glasses need to stick together, to have each other’s backs. To those who see the rising tide of fascism and are joining the cause and for those young enough that this is all pretty new, welcome.

We really do need to hang together or we really will hang separately. I said back in 2016 this was going to be a marathon and not a sprint and we have so very many miles to go. There is still time to save what is good about this country, and to build something new and better on part of the foundation that is still good. We can do it if we stick together and leave no one behind this time. We can do it if we don’t let them split us and get us all scrambling for the crumbs instead of insisting on pie for everyone.

This isn’t over. Not quite yet, though it might feel like it may be for some of us. Let us not go softly into that good night. Let us rage together at the dying of the light.

* "Midnight Pals: Jewish Noir:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/721215690590339072/midnight-pals-jewish-noir?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: A Fable:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/721521022058233856/midnight-pals-a-fable?source=share

*****
* 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.

* BPAL Charity Fundraiser "TRIUMPH IN MY SONG:" https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/triumph-in-my-song/

* Support the WGA. "Entertainment Community Fund:" https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

* "DIY Box Fan Air Filter Directions:" https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk261/files/inline-files/DIY%20Air%20Purifier%20Directions_English.Spanish_0.pdf

* My oldest continuous friend is trying to raise money to buy games for a Cat Rescue fundraiser. This cat rescue is no kill and places most cats in foster homes until they can be adopted. They are good people there and it's a huge number of cats many needing basic or more serious healthcare.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/318lgf6fa0?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1smSQTz7deMSVUBsEg30AdhQ-zeAEHGXOcHXqVUILTlF2MqnIIW49SDVU

* Cool Blackwork Embroidery Patterns for Beginners: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thehaberdasheress/?etsrc=sdt

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

( Links Underneath: )

* "Gay Ex-Adult Film Star Antonio Moreno Elected Mayor of Small Town :" https://www.advocate.com/politics/antonio-moreno-mayor-elect

* "Russian opposition leader Navalny urges anti-Kremlin campaign as his new trial begins:" https://apnews.com/article/russia-navalny-trial-c1c5cb7936e2c4eebcb76c1289aadfd6

* "Russia bars media from new "extremism" case against Navalny:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-navalny-court-face-extremism-charges-2023-06-19/

* "A failed plot to assassinate a C.I.A. spy in 2020 in part led to expulsions of the agency’s chief in Moscow and his Russian counterpart in Washington.:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/us/politics/russia-spy-assassination.html

* "Book shows Putin broke unwritten rule with plot to kill defector on U.S. soil:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/book-shows-putin-broke-unwritten-rule-with-plot-to-kill-defector-on-u-s-soil-nyt-183393349660

---

* "Russian mercenary boss accuses top brass of Ukraine battlefield cover-up:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-mercenary-boss-accuses-top-brass-ukraine-battlefield-cover-up-2023-06-22/

* Let's hope the people of the Crimea aren't left behind at the end of this. "Ukraine hits bridge linking Crimea to mainland in blow to Russian supply route:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-hits-bridge-linking-crimea-mainland-blow-russian-supply-route-2023-06-22/

* "Russia steps up aerial strikes on Ukraine, killing at least 6 amid Kyiv counteroffensive:" https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-odesa-f31bf4e312800e08803cc0190e28823a

---

* "Biden Rolls Out New LGBTQ+ Resources on Day of Historic White House Pride Celebration:" https://www.advocate.com/gay-pride-parade/biden-historic-pride-month-celebration

* "Biden Blasts ‘Prejudiced’ Lawmakers for Targeting LGBTQ+ Rights:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/joe-biden-gop-lawmakers-prejudiced

* "White House Pride Flag Display Enrages Right-Wingers:" https://www.advocate.com/gay-pride-parade/gop-pride-flag-violation

* "Fox News Says White House Flew ‘Pedophile,’ ‘Groomer’ Pride Flag:" https://www.advocate.com/media/outrageous-fox-news-pedophile-pride

* "Kamala Harris: Our One-on-One With the Vice President:" https://www.advocate.com/exclusives/exclusive-vice-president-kamala-harris

* "Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court :" https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court

* "Alito didn’t recuse himself from case involving billionaire fishing friend:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/propublica-alito-didn-t-recuse-himself-from-case-involving-billionaire-fishing-friend-183940165990

* "As Texas swelters, local rules requiring water breaks for construction workers will soon be nullified:" https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/16/texas-heat-wave-water-break-construction-workers/

* "If Writers Lose the Standoff With Studios, It Hurts All Filmmakers:" https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/film-editor-view-writers-strike-1235511140/

* "VOCATIONAL AWE AND LIBRARIANSHIP: THE LIES WE TELL OURSELVES:" https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

* "House GOP vows to continue Biden probes despite Hunter’s ‘sweetheart’ deal :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/20/house-republicans-hunter-biden-00102666

5 years of intensive partizan investigation and all they found were two minor tax misdemeanors that he already paid back, a fraction of what Roger stone owes and refuses to pay, and an addict in possession of a gun charge that they usually only pursue when there is other more serious crime involvement, that they are very likely only pursuing because he's the relative of a public figure.

Republicans are lying that this is a sweet heart deal. It's slightly more harsh than the average citizen. Meanwhile they are lying that Drumpf is somehow being persecuted unfairly for being investigated for a bunch of geometrically worse crimes related to various attempts to overthrow the US government where he either was caught on tape of publicly admitted them or where there is a mountain of evidence and where he doesn't get hand cuffed or mug shots or have to spend time in jail pending arraignment, and where the FBI and DOJ foot dragged and refused to even consider investigating for over a year, because those institutions don't believe that there should be equal treatment under the law for Drumpf. The Republicans agree with him that he should be allowed to shoot people in broad daylight with no consequences so even the most deferential treatment and mild consequences are unfair.

Yes, Hunter Biden made some bad decisions, mostly around his addiction, but this is penny ante stuff. He didn't kill anybody, or take bribes while in public office, or steal classified documents to compromise national security, or repeatedly try to overthrow the government. The disparity in the way Drumf is being treated vs any normal person doing similar things is massive, but Republicans are pretending that the scandal is that Hunter Biden is only getting slightly harsher than average treatment for the minor stuff he did and not being changed with the imaginary crimes they want him to have committed, and not Drumpf getting all these extra privileges.

* "‘Sheer sadism’: Hayes on the right’s fixation with Hunter Biden:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-sheer-sadism-hayes-on-the-right-s-fixation-with-hunter-biden-183607877536

* "House GOP ponders action against DOJ in defense of Trump :" https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4054435-house-gop-doj-defense-trump/

* "Adam Schiff Gets John Durham to Admit Russia Helped Trump:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/adam-schiff-gets-john-durham-to-admit-russia-helped-trump

* "Rep. Ted Lieu pulls no punches during Durham report committee hearing:" https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/21/2176745/-Rep-Ted-Lieu-pulls-no-punches-during-Durham-report-committee-hearing

* "Lieu blasts ‘dumb’ Durham hearing: Republicans focused on ‘stupid stuff’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/lieu-blasts-dumb-durham-hearing-republicans-focused-on-stupid-stuff-183949381728

* "Democrats Push for Mental Health Support for LGBTQ+ Youth in Republican-Led House:" https://www.advocate.com/lgbt-youth/lgbtq-youth-mental-health-bill

* "Republican Dan Crenshaw Says Gender-Affirming Care Ban Is ‘The Hill We Will Die On’:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/dan-crenshaw-gender-affirming-care

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them 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/

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* "'Stay Woke Florida!' tour begins 15-city 2024 voter outreach effort:" https://www.wptv.com/news/political/stay-woke-florida-tour-begins-15-city-2024-voter-outreach-effort

* "No Labels Is Helping a Firm that Raises Money for Right-Wing Extremists:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/no-labels-is-helping-a-firm-that-raises-money-for-right-wing-extremists-anedot/

* "Poppers Cause AIDS, the Environment Makes Boys Trans Says Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/robert-f-kennedy-jr-poppers

Remember how that Poppers caused AIDS not HIV rumor killed so many people in the '80's? RFK Jr. is pushing it as part of his Anti-Vax presidential campaign. I thought that died when Protease inhibitors came in! RFK Jr.: The Worst Kennedy.

He peddles that anti-Autistic people ableist bullshit. He tried to get as many people killed during the worst of COVID as possible. He's now trying to get Dr. Hotez killed by anti-vax terrorists as part of his presidential campaign.

Now with bonus transmisogyny and toxic masculinity.

* "RFK Jr's campaign of conspiracies: 'The leader of everybody’s brain worms':" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rfk-jr-s-campaign-of-conspiracies-the-leader-of-everybody-s-brain-worms-183615557966

* "11 Republican Presidential Hopefuls and Their Awful Anti-LGBTQ+ Records :" https://www.advocate.com/politics/2024-presidential-candidates-gop-lgbtq

* "Donald Trump Gives the Game Away on Conservatives' Transgender Panic:" https://advocatechannel.com/donald-trump-transgender-schools

* "GOP presidential candidates use trans bodies as political stepping stones:" https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/gop-presidential-candidates-use-trans-bodies-as-political-stepping-stones/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

* "Why aren’t LGBTQ people safe right now? Because Republicans want votes.:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republicans-2023-pride-backlash-polls-bud-light-rcna89564

* "'New level of hypocrisy': Why the GOP is wooing Muslims after decades of hate:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-new-level-of-hypocrisy-why-the-gop-is-wooing-muslims-after-decades-of-hate-183374405573

* "Miami GOP Mayor Francis Suarez jumps into presidential race:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/14/francis-suarez-president-mayor-miami-00102030

* "What a trio! The Florida men — Trump, DeSantis, Suarez — are a hoot to watch:" https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article276552331.html

* "Will Hurd, a moderate Texas Republican and Trump critic, announces run for president:" https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/22/will-hurd-presidential-campaign-2024/

* "Former Rep. Will Hurd jumps into 2024 race as Republican field grows:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/former-rep-will-hurd-jumps-into-2024-race-as-republican-field-grows-184204869811

* "DeSantis fixation on 'the woke' has a poor track record as a political strategy in Florida:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/desantis-fixation-on-the-woke-has-a-poor-track-record-as-a-political-strategy-in-florida-183396421714

* As if we needed more proof Ron DeSantis is terrible at even the most basic parts of his job. "Pete Buttigieg Can’t Reach Ron DeSantis to Talk Florida Transportation Projects:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/pete-buttigieg-ron-desantis-calls

* "Tallahassee Mayor Nixes LGBTQ+ Advisory Council Meeting During Pride Month:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/florida-tallahassee-lgbtq-advisory-council

* "How the Stain of Prop. 8 May Be Removed From California:" https://www.advocate.com/law/evan-low-scott-wiener-marriage

* "Trans Judge Appointed in New York, Makes History:" https://www.advocate.com/transgender/transgender-man-new-york-judge

* "Rep. Judy Chu: I am a target of the right’s new McCarthyism:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rep-judy-chu-target-rights-new-mccarthyism-rcna73477

* "Marjorie Taylor Greene Revives Anti-Trans Bathroom Predator Myth:" https://www.advocate.com/politicians/marjorie-taylor-greene-anti-trans

* "California Investigates School District After Board Members Call Harvey Milk a 'Pedophile':" https://www.advocate.com/news/harvey-milk-school-district-pedophile

********************

* This is from early May. I can't remember if I posted it then, but I think it's a good reminder due to developments in Michigan and Nevada. "Judge: Wisconsin fake electors complaint must be reheard:" https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-fake-electors-2020-trump-lawsuit-fb9cf9a5cdf109798fafc83cbaf1c72a

* "What ever happened to the federal investigation of Trump's fake elector scheme?:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/what-ever-happened-to-the-federal-investigation-of-trump-s-fake-elector-scheme-183395397606

* "Eastman plan to keep Trump in power faces a reckoning, as authorities seek his disbarment :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/20/eastman-disbarment-trial-trump-election-plan-00102784

* "Trump’s promise of payback for prosecution follows years of attacking democratic traditions:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-retribution-indictment-documents-biden-american-democracy-5a8ec37b359fee85d0f0956139d79f51

* "The Next Big Lie:" https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/the-next-big-lie

* "U.S. judge sets Aug. 14 trial date for Trump in Florida documents case:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-sets-aug-14-trial-date-trump-florida-documents-case-2023-06-20/

* "Barr Says Documents Case Against Trump Is ‘Entirely of His Own Making’:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/us/politics/barr-trump-documents-russia.html

* "Donald Trump's Legal Troubles Continue to Pile Up:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/donald-trump-s-legal-troubles-continue-to-pile-up-183135301973

* "Trump Indictment Raises Questions Over Possible Damage to National Security:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/trump-indictment-raises-questions-over-possible-damage-to-national-security-183135301994

* "Trump is not the first president special counsel Jack Smith has prosecuted:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-is-not-the-first-president-special-counsel-jack-smith-has-prosecuted-184200773818

* "FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/

* "DOJ resisted investigating Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 for over a year:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/wapo-doj-resisted-investigating-trump-s-actions-on-jan-6-for-over-a-year-183369797838

********************

* "‘Bob’s Burgers’ Actor Jay Johnston Charged in January 6 Riot:" https://advocatechannel.com/bobs-burgers-jay-johnston-charged-january-6-riot

* "Is America Already in a Civil War?:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-far-right-brad-onishi-america-civil-war-interview-1234772017/

* "MAGA pastor: Christians need people who are ‘willing to strap bombs to their chest’ like the Muslims:" https://deadstate.org/maga-pastor-christians-need-people-who-are-willing-to-strap-bombs-to-their-chest-like-the-muslims/

* "Donald Trump and the party of political violence:" https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4049597-donald-trump-and-the-party-of-political-violence/

* "Unmasking Moms for Liberty:" https://www.mediamatters.org/critical-race-theory/unmasking-moms-liberty

* "Suspect arrested after FBI uncovers alleged mass shooting plot:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-arrested-after-fbi-uncovers-alleged-mass-shooting/story?id=100155442

* They want to murder him for the crime of saving lives. He's such a good, compassionate, and empathetic man and I am furious that Anti-vaxxer shit RFK Jr. is waging a vendetta against him for calling him on his deadly and ableist bullshit to his face. "Vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez harassed outside Houston home after weekend of online attacks:" https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/health-science/coronavirus/2023/06/19/454720/peter-hotez-harassed-houston-house-joe-rogan-rfk-attacks/

* "Florida says it’s responsible for transporting migrants to Sacramento:" https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-06-06/florida-migrants-sacramento

* "Migrants share their experience, say they were deceived when they were flown to Sacramento:" https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-migrants-florida-california-texas/44228637

* "Newsom calls DeSantis ‘small, pathetic man,’ implies kidnapping charges over migrant stunt:" https://www.kron4.com/news/newsom-calls-desantis-small-pathetic-man-implies-kidnapping-charges-over-migrant-stunt/

* CW: Lynching. "Was Rasheem Carter Lynched?:"

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* Kentucky Police side with a dangerous member of a terrorist organization because they don't believe Queer People are human enough to defend. "KKK Members in Kentucky Pull Gun on LGBTQ+ Activists — Police Let Them Off:" https://www.advocate.com/news/kkk-kentucky-lgbtq-gun-threat

* "Neo-Nazis Protest Outside Disney World With Swastikas & DeSantis Signs:" https://www.advocate.com/news/florida-desantis-nazi-disney-swastikas

* "Military Chief Defends Cancellation of Drag Show at Nevada Military Base:" https://www.advocate.com/news/drag-show-military-chief-cancellation

* "NH officials say they're looking into neo-Nazi incident outside drag story hour in Concord:" https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2023-06-19/nsc131-neo-nazi-teatotaller-drag-story-hour-concord

* "How the conservative Christian right is hijacking homeschooling:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/schools-are-under-attack-america-s-religious-right-n1295340

* "Most Americans OK Discussing Gender and Sexuality in Schools: Survey:" https://www.advocate.com/news/schools-gender-sexuality-okay

* "College Board says it won’t alter AP courses to comply with Florida’s laws:" https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4051993-college-board-says-it-wont-alter-ap-courses-to-comply-with-floridas-laws/

* "Ron DeSantis Objects to AP Course's LGBTQ Content, College Board Defends It:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/ron-desantis-ap-college-board

* "Don’t Let Extremists Deny LGBTQ+ Students an Education:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/point-foundation-valencia-education

* "Florida School District Offers Refunds, Erasure of Yearbook's LGBTQ+ Content:" https://www.advocate.com/news/florida-lgbtq-yearbook-refund-censorship

* In a disaster, look for helpers. "High school English teacher makes a stand over book bans, erasure of LGBTQ+ students :" https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2023/06/18/high-school-english-teacher-makes-a-stand-over-book-bans-erasure-of-lgbtq-students/

* "L.A. School Board President Gives a Lesson on LGBTQ+ Inclusion:" https://www.advocate.com/news/school-lgbtq-inclusion-la-board

* "Missouri's Largest Library System Boots Pride Displays in Kids, Teen Areas:" https://www.advocate.com/gay-pride-parade/missouri-library-bans-pride-displays

* "How Do You Fight Book Bans? GLAAD and EveryLibrary Offer a Guide:" https://www.advocate.com/books/book-bans-guide-glaad-everylibrary

* "Despite Book Bans, LGBTQ+ Fiction Sales Soar:" https://www.advocate.com/books/lgbtq-books-record

* "Queer Representation in Children's Books Is More Important Than Ever, Says Author Seamus Kirst:" https://advocatechannel.com/queer-children-books-seamus-kirst

* "'Maus' Author Art Spiegelman Deeply Concerned About 'Authoritarian' Book Bans:" https://advocatechannel.com/art-spiegelman-maus-authoritarian-book-bans

* "With 'The Little Mermaid,' young Black kids are more interested in the water than ever. What to know about swimming racial disparities.:" https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-little-mermaid-young-black-kids-swimming-racial-disparities-213941973.html

* CW: Human Trafficking "Romanian prosecutors change human trafficking charge against Andrew Tate:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/romanian-prosecutors-change-human-trafficking-charge-against-andrew-tate-2023-06-13/

* CW: Child Sexual Abuse. "Archdiocese provides District Attorney Jason Williams voluminous file on disgraced priest:" https://www.nola.com/news/courts/archdiocese-provides-jason-williams-file-on-disgraced-priest/article_9f0308da-0bc5-11ee-9e46-cf8ef429070a.html

* Bet his mama's proud of him. What would Jesus do? Harass and terrify a nine year old out of cruelty for fun, apparently. "Man Harasses 9-Year-Old at Field Day Event, Falsely Insists She’s Transgender:" https://www.advocate.com/news/canadian-field-day-transgender-girl

* "TikTok Star Barrett Pall Shares How Misogyny Hurts Men, Too:" https://advocatechannel.com/barrett-pall-tiktok-misogyny-hurts-men-too

* "Southern Baptists reject Rick Warren’s appeal to reinstate Saddleback:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/06/14/southern-baptists-rick-warren-vote/

* "Playing With Yourself Has Been Perfected Over Millions of Years:" https://www.advocate.com/news/masturbation-evolution-primates

* "Documents show how conservative doctors influenced abortion, trans rights:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/06/15/abortion-transgender-christian-doctors/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjMxNjY3NzkiLCJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjg2ODAxNjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjg4MDk3NTk5LCJpYXQiOjE2ODY4MDE2MDAsImp0aSI6IjgzMWE2MmY0LTM4ZDEtNGY5NS1hYTcyLTM2ODRiMDk1MWYzOCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9oZWFsdGgvMjAyMy8wNi8xNS9hYm9ydGlvbi10cmFuc2dlbmRlci1jaHJpc3RpYW4tZG9jdG9ycy8ifQ.Z9BU0-uG1kom8puxLC9eIUHPUoxxNtpmqRTFcH9sBL8

---

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* "Support for Same-Sex Relationships Plummets as Less Find Them "Morally Acceptable":" https://www.advocate.com/news/gay-relationships-decrease-gallup

* "Without Self-Respect, There Is No Pride:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/without-self-respect-there-is-no-pride

* "Immediate access to gender-affirming hormone therapy eases distress, depression, suicidal thoughts for transgender adults, research finds:" https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/immediate-access-gender-affirming-hormone-130021402.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJ3DZb5dKhaU7JElIJ2zvo9piTp-qTv-k2BfF8SzC8VmSU6lC_jX829G_jM_rzgfxWgxIkv_XV7m9t_EpH4AoR06MsWbsW0zRZQmoLa_Y5njvgiLspkR0Ef-rFfx3__HxpLwexVQeyK_NfkhDub-p8zDWynfrTjLrWWfKf7QykTe

* "A Message to White Gays:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/message-to-white-gays

* "Queer Athletes on Competing in Countries with Anti-LGBTQ Laws:"

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* "31 Places Where Showing LGBTQ+ Pride Is Illegal :" https://www.advocate.com/world/where-is-it-illegal-to-be-gay-31

* "Qatar targeting LGBTQ+ people with ‘full blown force’ six months after World Cup, activist says:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/qatar-lgbq-world-cup/

* "Being LGBTQ+ in Malaysia: ‘You don’t know who to turn to’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/18/malaysia-lgbtq-persecution-non-binary-musician-moreofthem/

* "Baltic Pride knife assault victim recalls ‘pain and confusion’ of homophobic attack:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/baltic-pride-knife-attack-patrick-tianen/

* "Queensland passes new law allowing trans people to self-ID on birth certificates:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/15/queensland-birth-certificates-trans-self-id/

* "Man Who Murdered Gay American Scott Johnson in 1988 Is Sentenced Again:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/scott-johnson-murderer-sentenced-again

* "Right-wing troll charged with harassment of LGBTQ+ activist for posting selfie with dying dad:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/bubba-pollock-end-of-life-care-dad-ontario/

* "Growing up as a queer, masc woman in a small town wasn’t plain sailing – but it wasn’t all bad:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/18/queer-masc-lesbian/

* "LGBTQ+ refugees don’t feel safe in the UK: ‘Everything’s attacking us, we’re demonised’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/22/teslim-joel-refugee-week-nigeria-sierra-leone/

* "Gay Afghan who fled Taliban couldn’t claim LGBTQ+ asylum in UK, John Nicolson MP writes:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/21/john-nicolson-mp-gay-afghan-asylum/

* "Tory government and US conspiracy theories to blame for anti-drag attacks in UK, study finds:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/22/anti-drag-us-uk-conspiracy-theory-research/

* "Activists blast Tory conversion therapy consent loophole: ‘This will cost many lives’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/21/conversion-therapy-rishi-sunak-boris-johnson-consent-loophole/

* "Electric Shock Treatment, Overt Homophobia in U.K. Armed Forces:" https://www.advocate.com/news/armed-forces-uk-homophobia-report

* "Royal College of Nursing members demand resources to better support LGBTQ+ hate crime victims:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/18/royal-college-of-nursing-hate-crime-lgbtq/

* "Rishi Sunak urged to drop ‘harmful’ trans schools guidance dubbed ‘new Section 28’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/rishi-sunak-trans-schools-guidance/

* "Rishi Sunak’s ‘disgusting’ anti-trans jokes condemned by MPs and LGBTQ+ charities:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/rishi-sunak-leaked-video-trans-reaction/

* "LGBTQ+ advocates shocked by Equality Act reforms debate: ‘Distressing and infuriating’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/13/westminster-debate-equality-act-sex-trans/

* "Bristol Pride calls for allyship after billboard advert is set on fire in ‘cowardly’ hate crime:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/bristol-pride-billboard-attack/

* "Lesbian couple ‘heartbroken’ by homophobic doormat attack supported by kind neighbours:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/pride-doormat-attack-bristol-lesbian-couple/

* "‘Let women speak. No not like that’: TERFs pile on female Guardian writer for pro-trans article:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/terfs-guardian-trans-allyship/

* "‘Gender-critical’ activists attempted to protest a Primark in Lincoln. Two people showed up:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/19/lincoln-primark-lgbtq-protest/

* "Bolt apologises after taxi driver leaves queer man stranded with ‘no gay boy’ insult:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/22/bolt-taxi-service-homophobia-manchester/

* "The Insidious Violence of Civility Politics:"

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* "LGBTQ+ Americans: Let's Take Back Our Flag:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/lgbtq-americans-let-s-take-back-our-flag

* "SARS-CoV-2 airborne infection probability estimated by using indoor carbon dioxide:" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-023-27944-9

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* "Four alarming charts that show just how extreme the climate is right now:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/17/world/four-climate-charts-extreme-weather-heat-oceans/index.html

* "Greece finds no more survivors of migrant boat disaster with hundreds missing:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/greece-finds-no-survivors-migrant-boat-disaster-hundreds-missing-rcna89440

* "New accounts clash with official version of migrant shipwreck disaster off Greece:" https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20230619-new-accounts-clash-with-official-version-of-migrant-disaster-off-greece

* "Titanic-bound submersible suffered ‘catastrophic implosion.’ The US Navy detected an implosion Sunday and told rescuers, an official tells CNN:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/22/us/submersible-titanic-oceangate-search-thursday/index.html

---

* "Live camera shows I-95 collapse repairs underway in Philadelphia:" https://abc7ny.com/i-95-collapse-philadelphia-i95-interstate-highway-road/13386149/

* "The Hidden Chemicals Destroying American Farms:"

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* "GLAAD: Social media companies are enabling real world violence:" https://www.axios.com/2023/06/15/glaad-social-media-companies-hate-speech-lgbtq

* Steve Huffman is vowing to send Reddit into the toilet after Twitter, looks like. "Reddit CEO praises Elon Musk’s cost-cutting as protests rock the platform :" https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-blackout-protest-private-ceo-elon-musk-huffman-rcna89700

* "Despite widespread protest, Reddit CEO says company is ‘not negotiating’ on 3rd-party app charges :" https://thehill.com/business/despite-widespread-protest-reddit-ceo-says-company-is-not-negotiating-on-changes-to-data-access/

* "Here’s the note Reddit sent to moderators threatening them if they don’t reopen:" https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/16/23763538/reddit-blackout-api-protest-mod-replacement-threat

* "Reddit CEO Steve Huffman isn’t backing down: our full interview:" https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/15/23762868/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-interview

* "Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things: Three Decades of Survival in the Desert of Social Media:" https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other-and-start

* "Twitter is being evicted from its Boulder office over unpaid rent:" https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/14/twitter-is-being-evicted-from-its-boulder-office-over-unpaid-rent/

* "Twitter is the worst major social media platform when it comes to LGBTQ+ safety, says GLAAD:" https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-technology/twitter-worst-among-major-social-media-platforms-when-it-comes-to-lgbtq-safety-glaad-says/

* "Musk Incites Anti-Vaccine Conspiracists By Mischaracterizing Peter Hotez:" https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/06/19/musk-incites-anti-vaccine-conspiracists-by-mischaracterizing-peter-hotez/?sh=505b10e3108f

* "Elon Musk has made some disturbing comments about Jews. Here’s a list:" https://forward.com/news/550035/elon-musk-disturbing-comments-jews/?amp=1

* "Elon Musk’s promise to treat ‘cis’ as a slur will provoke more extremism:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/jk-rowling-elon-musk-cisgender-trans-slur-rcna90632

* I often feel like reality has sailed on past the Onion these days. "Mark Zuckerberg agrees to fight Elon Musk in cage match:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musk-fight/

* "Neanderthal adhesives were made through a complex synthesis process:" https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/neanderthals-seem-to-be-the-first-humans-to-make-synthetic-materials/

* "Send beer!’ Life on the Roman frontier revealed by soldiers’ private letters:" https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/vindolanda-roman-fort-england

* "The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man:" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-first-self-proclaimed-drag-queen-was-a-formerly-enslaved-man-180982311/

* "The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912:" https://thefatovamingusfiles.wordpress.com/2023/06/16/the-bread-and-roses-strike-of-1912/

* "Jane Addams: Chicago's Haunted Sapphic Icon:"

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* "14 Inspiring Queer Protest Posters in Days of Rage from ONE Archives :" https://www.advocate.com/activism/14-inspiring-queer-protest-posters

* "The Importance of Juneteenth - the Newest Federal Holiday:" https://www.advocate.com/news/juneteenth-importance-federal-holiday

* "Treat Williams, LGBTQ+ Ally in Gay-Themed Films, Dead at 71:" https://www.advocate.com/obituaries/treat-williams-lgbtq-ally-dead

* "Pride’s Bookshelf: Unveiling The LGBTQ+ Memoirs You Must Own:" https://www.out.com/gay-lifestyle/prides-bookshelf-unveiling-the-lgbtq-memoirs-you-must-own

* "13 Vintage Photos of Los Angeles Pride from ONE Archives :" https://www.advocate.com/gay-pride-parade/vintage-photos-los-angeles-pride

* "17 Photos of the Trans Experience by Mariette Pathy Allen :" https://www.advocate.com/art/mariette-pathy-allen-breaking-boundaries#rebelltitem18

* "10 Iconic Photos of LGBTQ+ History From Getty Images:" https://www.advocate.com/photography/10-photos-lgbtq-history

* My garden makes me happy, tiny as it is. I love the way it smells of basil and tomato leaves and rosemary and spearmint. I love the lushness of it compared to the sterile looking landscaping management insists on. It feels like the glorious chaos of nature fighting back every time seeds blow out of my container garden and sprout amongst the deliberately barren patches beyond my porch border. I love being surrounded by green and all those vegetable plant flowers.

This is already shaping up to be the best year ever for my tiny strawberry patch. I likely would have been the best year for asparagus, judging from the early growth, but the compost sprouted such an abundance of other things that I fear the asparagus hasn't a chance. Maybe next year. The day after New Millennial brought over the Pride Pinwheel they painted, my beloved carnations started blooming. Some of the early tomatoes are already growing on the bigger plants, which gives me hopes of this year being as good as last year for tomatoes.

* Tuesday, I met the new, alas temporary Doctor. Today's medical theme was arthritis. For those following along, but medical records are on the scale of the complete unabridged writings of Aquinas, as it's impossible for anyone to get a handle on them quickly, so we are doing a series of appointments each centered on a major theme to help get things on track.

I have warned her about the opiods and anti-psychotics both artificially inducing hallucinations and paranoia in people of my family and how it happened to me post surpery in percacet last year so she'll know if I get in a car accident and start hallucinating so they give me an anti-pscotic which together may induce psychotic break. Brains are fun.

I have a new replacement referral for the wheelchair/mobility assessment. It turns out there is now literally one allergy doctor with a tiny practice left in the whole city, which is why we are all so fucked. Peacehealth closed two other essential specialties in which they had a monopoly, fucking over all those patients too, the bastards. she's going to check our county and the county just south for me. It's worth blowing my medical transport credits on. They just way upped the limit anyway.

Medical science has moved forward a lot in the last 10-15 years. One of the early rheums said I likely had fibromyalgia, but it wasn't worth pursuing as medicare didn't believe in it and the treatment would be the same as my way easier to document arthritis and visible to the naked eye spinal damage.

So we are trying a new class of meds to see if I can tolerate them without my brain and/or body flipping out, as so often happens when one introduces new meds to it. I'm at a sub clinical dose to test tolerance, but I can feel the difference. I also feel a bit peculiar, though I'm adjusting.

Long time readers know the drill. I am weird, but if you spot anything obviously weird for me, way off my usual sort of postings, nonsense, irrationality, that sort of thing, give me a heads up that new meds may be driving me off the rails. Squirrel and my usual chat buddies know the drill and I'll let the millennials know what to watch for. Odds are it will be fine. I'm more likely to get stopped by physical side effects on this one, but it's always good to have more spotters.

* Wednesday, Squirrel lent us his cat for errands and then we hug out. We are still looking for a better sobriquet for New Millennial. Head Millennial will henceforth be called Goth Millennial.

So Goth Millennial and I are on the sofa and Techie Millennial and New Millennial are on the chairs. The Emperor was understandably excited. Many of his personal Millennials were here. (As of this week, New Millennial is in the Clowder according to the Emperor, so he climbed onto me to enjoy, being part of the group. Pictured here, Tavy, the Tiny Terror himself, in the crook of my arm alertly participating in the group discussion.

https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/720889365153349632/wednesday-squirrel-lent-us-his-cat-for-errands?source=share

* The elderly car goes into the shop Friday for the third time in threeish months. I've no idea how expensive it will be, but I've a nasty feeling it will be bad. I have blown all my money on catching up the bills I didn't pay in April for the previous repair. If you want to chip in: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Gwydion

* Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Cat Rescue fund raiser. They made a lot of money with the event, and the games will be used in recurring fundraisers.

* TNG: The Spot Centric Episode: https://www.tumblr.com/seananmcguire/720868927245336576?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: Dracula Sovereign of the Damned:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/720324019247792128/midnight-pals-dracula-sovereign-of-the-damned?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: this is so stupid:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/720767546126712832/midnight-pals-this-is-so-stupid?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: New Friends:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/720492487495630848/midnight-pals-new-friends?source=share

*****
* 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.

* BPAL Charity Fundraiser "TRIUMPH IN MY SONG:" https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/triumph-in-my-song/

* Support the WGA. "Entertainment Community Fund:" https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

* My oldest continuous friend is trying to raise money to buy games for a Cat Rescue fundraiser. This cat rescue is no kill and places most cats in foster homes until they can be adopted. They are good people there and it's a huge number of cats many needing basic or more serious healthcare.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/318lgf6fa0?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1smSQTz7deMSVUBsEg30AdhQ-zeAEHGXOcHXqVUILTlF2MqnIIW49SDVU

* Cool Blackwork Embroidery Patterns for Beginners: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thehaberdasheress/?etsrc=sdt

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

( Links Underneath: )

* "Which countries would cyber-attack Australia?:" https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-53102997/australian-cyber-attack-which-countries-would-do-it

* "Zoom admits to shutting down activist accounts at the request of the Chinese government :" https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/11/zoom-admits-to-shutting-down-activist-accounts-at-the-request-of-the-chinese-government/

* "North Korea blows up office used for talks with South:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/asia/north-korea-explosion-intl-hnk/index.html

* "Pressure grows on India's Modi after deadly skirmish with China over Himalayan border:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/asia/china-india-himalayas-conflict-intl-hnk/index.html

* "India's Modi vows to protect borders after clashes:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53114762

************************************************************************************************

* It’s not an absolute cure, but it’s cheap, pretty much everywhere, and dramatically reduces the death rate. "Life-saving coronavirus drug 'major breakthrough':" https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53061281

* My concern about the safety of public toilets after reopening turns out to have been well founded. "Flushing the Toilet May Fling Coronavirus Aerosols All Over:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/health/coronavirus-toilets-flushing.html

* "Is Iran facing a second wave of coronavirus?:" https://www.bbc.com/news/52959756

* "Why does India deny Covid community transmission?:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53018912

* "Brazil faces the coronavirus disaster almost everyone saw coming:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/15/brazil-faces-coronavirus-disaster-almost-everyone-saw-coming/

* "In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/06/19/countries-keeping-coronavirus-bay-experts-watch-us-case-numbers-with-alarm/

* "Europe suppressed the coronavirus. The U.S. has not.:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/europe-suppressed-the-coronavirus-the-u-s-has-not-85485125688

* "US virus outbreaks stir clash over masks, personal freedom:" https://apnews.com/54374ff841dfd84323a1fb86d1e93180

* "Dr. Fauci Explains Why Public Wasn't Told to Wear Masks When COVID-19 Pandemic Began:" https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-directive-coronavirus

* "FDA ends emergency use of hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/15/fda-ends-emergency-use-of-hydroxychloroquine-319872

* "Trump calls coronavirus testing "overrated," says it "makes us look bad":" https://www.axios.com/trump-coronavirus-testing-overrated-cf847872-20d0-48b1-95dd-34af301642c0.html

* "The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles:" https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-paid-millions-for-test-tubes-and-got-unusable-mini-soda-bottles

* "US stockpile stuck with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/health/hydroxychloroquine-national-stockpile/index.html

* "Mike Pence's coronavirus claims go from bad to worse:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mike-pence-s-coronavirus-claims-go-bad-worse-n1231272?cid=sm_fb_maddow

* "Pence Overstates Coronavirus Supplies Delivered by Administration’s ‘Airbridge’ Program:" https://www.wsj.com/articles/pence-overstates-coronavirus-supplies-delivered-by-administrations-airbridge-program-11592584447

* "White House insists coronavirus is 'still a priority' as Trump prepares for rally that could spread it:" https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/19/white-house-insists-coronavirus-is-a-priority-as-trump-prepares-for-rally.html

* "'They're in denial': How Trump's White House is ignoring the pandemic:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-reelection-vaccine/index.html

* "A Mask is a Stupid Hill to Die on, America:" https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/06/17/a-mask-is-a-stupid-hill-to-die-on-america/

* "Fauci: Americans ignoring science during pandemic is "frustrating":" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-fauci-coronavirus-pandemic-americans-ignoring-science/

* "New coronavirus spread isn't the feared 'second wave' – it's still the first, researchers say:" https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/12/coronavirus-spread-isnt-the-feared-second-waveits-still-the-first.html

* "10 states are seeing their highest average of daily new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic started:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html

* "Florida, Arizona and Texas set records for new COVID-19 cases:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-arizona-texas-set-records-new-covid-19-cases-n1231326

* "Covid-19 Hospitalizations Surge in Some States:" https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-hospitalizations-surge-in-some-states-11591912459?mod=hp_lead_pos3

* "Some parts of the U.S. are 'on the cusp of losing control' of coronavirus, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says:" https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/18/coronavirus-parts-of-the-us-are-on-the-cusp-of-losing-control-gottlieb-says.html

* "Oregon Pauses Reopening As Coronavirus Cases Rise:" https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/12/875961223/oregon-pauses-reopening-as-coronavirus-cases-rise

* "Whirlpool Corporation confirms Tulsa plant temporarily closed due to COVID-19 cases:" https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/whirlpool-corporation-confirms-tulsa-plant-temporarily-closed-due-to-covid-19-cases

* "Coronavirus curve rises in Florida and Texas, as states reopen:" https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-florida-texas-curve-3a16926f-ed0a-4451-8b22-9e37cb1690d9.html

* "North Carolina reports 42,676 COVID-19 cases, 1,104 deaths as hospitalizations hit new record high of 823:" https://abc11.com/health/covid-19-latest-1427-more-cases-as-hospitalizations-hit-new-high/6247026/

* "Secret document lists locations of Kansas coronavirus outbreaks. Here’s what it says:" https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article243305606.html

* "Arizona Sets COVID Records As Outbreak Blazes:" https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/arizona-sets-covid-records-as-outbreak-blazes

* "Arizona governor backtracks on mask rules as Covid-19 cases surge:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/17/arizona-coronavirus-covid-19-governor-mayors

* "Arizona Sheriff Who Refused to Enforce Lockdown Now Has COVID-19:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/pinal-county-sheriff-mark-lamb-who-refused-to-enforce-lockdown-now-has-covid-19

* "With coronavirus cases climbing, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says "no real need" to scale back business reopenings:" https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/12/texas-coronavirus-reopening-cases/

* "Oregon sees record daily number of COVID-19 cases:" https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/oregon-sees-record-daily-number-of-covid-19-cases/

* "Montgomery City Council votes down mask ordinance, sends doctors out in disgust:" https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/06/16/montgomery-council-votes-down-mask-ordinance-doctors-disgust/3203300001/

* "Montgomery city council rejects mask rule over pleas of doctors:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/montgomery-city-council-rejects-mask-rule-over-pleas-of-doctors-85191749514

* "Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed Issues Executive Order Requiring Face Masks to be Worn in Public:" https://www.alabamanews.net/2020/06/17/montgomery-mayor-steven-reed-issues-executive-order-requiring-face-masks-to-be-worn-in-public/

* "'They'll understand in the long run': mayor issues mask order:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/-they-ll-understand-in-the-long-run-mayor-issues-mask-order-85420613654

* "Texas Governor Says 'No Reason Today To Be Alarmed' As Coronavirus Cases Set Record:" https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/16/878924556/as-texas-coronavirus-cases-reach-new-high-gov-abbott-plays-down-the-numbers

* "California makes face coverings mandatory outside the home:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/california-coronavirus-face-covering-order/index.html

* "COVID-19 is surging in Florida. Don’t deny why, Gov. DeSantis. Act responsibly:" https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article243591327.html

* "King County approved to move to Phase 2 amid coronavirus pandemic:" https://www.seattlepi.com/coronavirus/article/king-county-approved-to-move-to-phase-2-covid-19-15350732.php

* "It Doesn’t Look Like the Protests Are Causing a COVID-19 Spike:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/protests-covid-outdoor-masks.html

* "'Perfect storm for when COVID hits': Neglected Black communities in Alabama see coronavirus surge:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/perfect-storm-when-covid-hits-neglected-black-communities-alabama-see-n1231229

* "Meatpacking plants see spike in coronavirus outbreaks following Trump order: report:" https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/501617-meatpacking-plants-see-spike-in-coronavirus-outbreaks-following-trump-order

* "'All smoke and mirrors': How Trump's meatpacking order has failed to keep workers safe:" https://www.news-journalonline.com/zz/news/20200618/all-smoke-and-mirrors-how-trumps-meatpacking-order-has-failed-to-keep-workers-safe

* "KCCI Investigates: Who was involved in high-level conversations about COVID-19 outbreaks at meatpacking plants:" https://www.kcci.com/article/kcci-investigates-who-was-involved-in-high-level-conversations-about-covid-19-outbreaks-at-meatpacking-plants/32907360#

* "As U.S. Nursing-Home Deaths Reach 50,000, States Ease Lockdowns:" https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-deaths-in-u-s-nursing-long-term-care-facilities-top-50-000-11592306919

* "Despite dire death toll, Trump admin still failing nursing homes:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/despite-dire-death-toll-trump-admin-still-failing-nursing-homes-84970053705

* "Federal government derelict in nursing home coronavirus response:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/federal-government-derelict-in-nursing-home-coronavirus-response-84971589664

* "TSA insider faults agency’s response to coronavirus:" https://www.seattletimes.com/business/reports-tsa-insider-faults-agencys-response-to-coronavirus/

* "Fast food workers, Rep. Joe Kennedy talk workers facing pandemic:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/covid-19-pandemic-impact-on-fast-food-workers-in-their-words-85035077983

**************************************************************************************

* "World takes note of waning influence of U.S. mired in crises:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/world-takes-note-of-waning-influence-of-u-s-mired-in-crises-85190213528

* "U.S. losing 'strategic communications' contest with global rivals:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/u-s-losing-strategic-communications-contest-with-global-rivals-85189189872

* "Russia Sends More Troops West, Challenging U.S.-NATO Presence Near Borders:" https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-sends-more-troops-west-challenging-us-nato-presence-near-borders/ar-BB156dgJ

* "12 false claims Trump has made about Obama since last month:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/fact-check-trump-obama-lies-policing-justice/index.html

* "Twitter labels Trump's tweet as 'manipulated media':" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-trump/twitter-labels-trumps-tweet-as-manipulated-media-idUSKBN23Q0LV

* "Facebook let the Trump campaign run ads with inverted red triangle — an infamous Nazi symbol:" https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-let-trump-campaign-run-ads-inverted-red-triangle-infamous-nazi-symbol

* "Trump's wish for an end to the pandemic contradicts reality:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-politics-oklahoma-election-2020/index.html

* "COVID-19 risk at GOP convention shrouded by Florida data opacity:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/covid-19-risk-at-gop-convention-shrouded-by-florida-data-opacity-84971077700

* "Patel: Coronavirus makes an indoor Trump rally 'a setup for disaster':" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/patel-coronavirus-makes-an-indoor-trump-rally-a-setup-for-disaster-84963909600

* "Trump Superfans Line Up Early for Tulsa Rally:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/world/coronavirus-cases-usa-world.html

* "‘Of course not’: Fauci says he personally wouldn’t attend Trump’s Tulsa rally, citing coronavirus:" https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/of-course-not-fauci-says-he-personally-wouldnt-attend-trumps-tulsa-rally-citing-coronavirus/

* "White House says Trump rally attendees ‘assume a personal risk’:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/17/tulsa-trump-rally-coronavirus-personal-risk-326257

* "Tulsa arena asks Trump campaign for detailed health plan as Oklahoma Supreme Court hears arguments about rally:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-arena-asks-trump-campaign-for-detailed-health-plan-as-oklahoma-supreme-court-hears-arguments-about-rally/2020/06/18/4e490308-b197-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html

* "Top members of coronavirus task force advised against Trump's Tulsa rally:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/top-members-coronavirus-task-force-advised-against-trump-s-tulsa-n1231585

* "Judge denies Oklahoma residents’ bid to block Trump’s rally because of coronavirus fears:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/oklahoma-lawsuit-tries-to-block-trumps-rally-because-of-coronavirus-fears/2020/06/16/175bbf30-b01f-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html

* "Trump crowd grows, clashes with protesters ahead of rally:" https://apnews.com/3ecbdd74c885b362661ed0f8c80b5b28

* "‘Magically protected’: Why hardcore Trump supporters won’t wear masks at rally:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-magically-protected-why-hardcore-trump-supporters-won-t-wear-masks-at-rally-85485125654

* I have misgivings about the use of Gnosticism here, but the rest of the reporting is important. "“He’s the Chosen One to Run America”: Inside the Cult of Trump, His Rallies Are Church and He Is the Gospel:" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel

* "Trump to visit Arizona, Wisconsin next week:" https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503640-trump-to-visit-arizona-wisconsin-next-week

* "Face masks will no longer be required for White House staff:" https://www.axios.com/white-house-face-masks-required-8f08f27b-ca76-4efb-9161-4b3af615fdad.html

* "Trump indifference to governing a symptom of post-policy GOP:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-indifference-to-governing-a-symptom-of-post-policy-gop-85128261639

* "Americans learn first-hand the burdens of post-policy politics:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/americans-learn-first-hand-the-burdens-of-post-policy-politics-85127237566

* "Trump: 'I made Juneteenth very famous' by moving Tulsa rally:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/18/trump-juneteenth-tulsa-rally-328557

* "Trump calls for 'new justices' on Supreme Court after unfavorable rulings:" https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503413-trump-calls-for-new-justices-on-supreme-court-after-unfavorable

* 45 risked people’s lives for this. "Malcolm Nance: Trump West Point speech ‘dull as dishwater’:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-west-point-speech-dull-as-dishwater-malcolm-nance-says-84999749519

* "Trump launches the tell-all playbook on Bolton: Lawsuits and Twitter threats:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/justice-department-sues-to-block-bolton-memoir-323753

* "Schiff rips Barr for using DOJ to protect Trump from Bolton book:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/schiff-rips-barr-for-using-doj-to-protect-trump-from-bolton-book-85305413539

* "Bolton book bombshells: Trump asked China's Xi for reelection help and told him to keep building concentration camps:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/bolton-book-trump/index.html

* "Trump sought even more foreign help to retain presidency: Bolton:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-sought-even-more-foreign-help-to-retain-presidency-bolton-85421125569

* "Bolton blames Democrats for failed impeachment despite refusing to testify:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/bolton-blames-democrats-for-failed-impeachment-despite-refusing-to-testify-85295173778

* "Bolton's staggering profile in cowardice:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/opinions/boltons-staggering-profile-in-cowardice-honig/index.html

* "How Trump misled U.S. on coronavirus while seeking Chinese reelection help:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/how-trump-misled-u-s-on-coronavirus-while-seeking-chinese-reelection-help-85410373998

* "Trump Considers Suing His Niece Over Her Tell-All Book, Saying She Signed an NDA:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-considers-suing-his-niece-mary-trump-over-her-tell-all-book-saying-she-signed-an-nda

* "Scientists Warn Against Consumer Protection Nominee:" https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/16/876309425/scientists-warn-against-consumer-protection-nominee

* "New Trump Appointee to Foreign Aid Agency Has Denounced Liberal Democracy and “Our Homo-Empire”:" https://www.propublica.org/article/new-trump-appointee-to-foreign-aid-agency-has-denounced-liberal-democracy-and-our-homo-empire#962572

* "U.S. Attorney who oversaw key investigations related to Trump is resigning, says AG Barr:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/barr-announces-exit-of-us-attorney-for-sdny-new-trump-nominee-85488197545

* "Top State Department official resigns in protest of Trump’s response to racial tensions in the country:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-state-department-official-resigns-in-protest-of-trumps-response-to-racial-tensions-in-the-country/2020/06/18/e142e342-b181-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html

* "Top Pentagon official Wheelbarger resigns, urges colleagues to be guided by U.S. Constitution:" https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/18/top-pentagon-official-wheelbarger-resigns-urges-colleagues-to-be-guided-by-us-constitution.html

* "Former gay Republican leader joins the most anti-LGBT+ White House in modern history:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/18/gregory-t-angelo-log-cabin-republicans-donald-trump-white-house-office-drug-control-policy-spokesman/

* "Trump's fourth NSC Russia director is leaving the White House:" https://www.axios.com/trump-nsc-russia-director-70b0ae9a-089d-417b-bc08-408f556a6871.html

* "Mulvaney: Trump ‘didn’t hire very well,’ doesn’t mesh with ‘military personality’:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/19/mick-mulvaney-donald-trump-military-ties-hiring-329383

* "Trump's New Foreign Broadcasting CEO Fires News Chiefs, Raising Fears Of Meddling:" https://www.npr.org/2020/06/18/879873926/trumps-new-foreign-broadcasting-ceo-fires-news-chiefs-raising-fears-of-meddling

* "'Wednesday night massacre' as Trump appointee takes over at global media agency:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/media/us-agency-for-global-media-michael-pack/index.html

* "Voice of America top officials resign as Trump-appointed CEO takes over international network:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/media/voice-of-america-top-officials-resign/index.html

* "Trump stacks US media agency with loyalists led by Bannon acolyte:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-stacks-us-media-agency-with-loyalists-led-by-bannon-acolyte-85488709871

* "Trump threatens valuable tool for spreading American ideals:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-threatens-valuable-tool-for-spreading-american-ideals-85492805964

* "Trump firings at US Global Media risk damaging high standards:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-firings-at-us-global-media-risk-damaging-high-standards-85494341544

* "NOAA leaders violated agency’s scientific integrity policy, Hurricane Dorian ‘Sharpiegate’ investigation finds:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/15/noaa-investigation-sharpiegate/

* "HUD to change transgender rules for single-sex homeless shelters:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hud-to-change-transgender-rules-for-single-sex-homeless-shelters/2020/06/12/d47a5744-ad03-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html

* "Lambda Legal Condemns Senate Republicans for Advancing Anti-Civil Rights Nominee Cory Wilson in Middle of a Pandemic and Nation-Wide Protests:" https://www.lambdalegal.org/news/dc_20200611_ll-condemns-senate-gop-advancing-cory-wilson

* "EPA Won’t Regulate Rocket Fuel Additive Perchlorate:" https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-wont-regulate-rocket-fuel-additive-perchlorate-11592470801?mod=hp_lista_pos4

* "Weekly unemployment claims remain high, amid second wave of layoffs:" https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/weekly-unemployment-claims-remain-high-amid-second-wave-layoffs-n1231399

* "Trump Touted the Economy’s COVID Resilience While His Top Aide Dumped His Stocks:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-touted-the-economys-covid-resilience-while-his-top-aide-mick-mulvaney-dumped-his-stocks/?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

* "Members of Congress took small-business loans — and the full extent is unknown:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/congress-small-business-loan-320625

* "Kudlow says $600 additional unemployment checks will end in July:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/14/kudlow-unemployment-checks-end-317641

* "Barber: It’s time for a moral revival as pandemic strikes poor:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/covid-19-pandemic-impact-on-poor-a-moral-issue-bishop-barber-says-85036101590

* "Dustin Lance Black on Biden, Hollywood, and the Ignorance of Prejudice:" https://www.advocate.com/people/2020/6/15/dustin-black-blm-protest

* "Transgender Health Protections Reversed By Trump Administration:" https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/12/868073068/transgender-health-protections-reversed-by-trump-administration

* "Joe Biden says Donald Trump’s ‘cruelty knows no bounds’ after he strips trans healthcare protections during Pride Month:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/13/joe-biden-donald-trump-trans-healthcare-protections-pride-month/

* "Activists slam roll backs of transgender healthcare protections:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-admin-rolls-back-transgender-healthcare-protections-85018693693

* "Trump admin works to make life harder for trans people:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-admin-works-to-make-life-harder-for-trans-people-85128773947

* "On the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, Trump administration celebrates by cruelly erasing healthcare protections for trans patients:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/13/donald-trump-trans-administration-healthcare-rollback-department-of-health-human-service/

* "‘My biggest risk’: Trump says mail-in voting could cost him reelection:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/19/trump-interview-mail-voting-329307

* "Stacey Abrams - Fighting Voter Suppression in "Our Time Is Now":"

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* "Republicans will call for a ban on same-sex marriage and rally against trans rights in outdated election platform:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/12/republican-platform-2020-gop-donald-trump-same-sex-marriage-trans-conversion-therapy/

* "Republican party issues brief celebrating Donald Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ pro-LGBT+ achievements. Yes, really:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/12/donald-trump-lgbt-rights-republican-party-gop-brief-pride-month-trans-military-ban-joe-biden-equality/

* "House Republican leaders condemn GOP candidate who made racist videos:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/17/house-republicans-condemn-gop-candidate-racist-videos-325579

* "Trayvon Martin’s mom explains why she’s running for office:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trayvon-martin-s-mom-explains-why-she-s-running-for-office-84964421962

* "On Pulse Anniversary, a Call for LGBTQ+ Support for Gun Reform:" https://www.advocate.com/news/2020/6/12/pulse-anniversary-call-lgbtq-support-gun-reform

* "Supreme Court won't hear challenge to California sanctuary law:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/politics/sanctuary-cities-california-supreme-court/index.html

* "Supreme Court blocks Trump from ending DACA:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/18/politics/daca-immigration-supreme-court/index.html

* "Trump lashes out at Supreme Court, tries to turn DACA decision into a campaign issue:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lashes-out-at-supreme-court-calls-decisions-shotgun-blasts-into-the-face-of-conservatives/2020/06/18/e0bd2988-b176-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html

* "Trump admin sloppiness hands Supreme Court victory to DREAMers:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-admin-sloppiness-hands-supreme-court-victory-to-dreamers-85421125551

* "DACA lawyer says SCOTUS decision proves rule of law still exists, despite Trump:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/daca-lawyer-says-scotus-decision-proves-rule-of-law-still-exists-despite-trump-85408837926

*****

* "Seattle's Lesbian Mayor Jenny Durkan to Trump: Go Back to Your Bunker:" https://www.advocate.com/news/2020/6/11/seattles-lesbian-mayor-jenny-durkan-trump-go-back-your-bunker

* "Esper orders review of recent National Guard deployments:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/politics/mark-esper-national-guard-review/index.html

* "Officials familiar with Lafayette Square confrontation challenge Trump administration claim of what drove aggressive expulsion of protesters:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/officials-challenge-trump-administration-claim-of-what-drove-aggressive-expulsion-of-lafayette-square-protesters/2020/06/14/f2177e1e-acd4-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html

* "White House didn't receive heads up about Milley apology:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/politics/white-house-milley-apology/index.html

* This is my deep skepticism. "Trump To Sign An Executive Order On Police Reform:" https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877794772/trump-to-sign-an-executive-order-on-police-reform

* Secret Service now says it did use pepper spray to clear protesters during the Trump church photo op":" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/secret-service-now-says-it-did-use-pepper-spray-clear-n1231022

* "Air Force Investigates Military Planes That Monitored Protesters:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/politics/investigation-military-surveillance-planes-george-floyd-protests.html

* "From the Northwest to the White House: The fascists are here:" https://crosscut.com/2020/06/northwest-white-house-fascists-are-here

* "America, We Need to Talk About Fascism:" https://eand.co/america-we-need-to-talk-about-fascism-dc345f29a88

* "Mike Pence Refuses to Say ‘Black Lives Matter’:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/watch-mike-pence-refuses-to-say-black-lives-matter

* "'The police are killing us, not coronavirus':" https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-53025934/kenya-police-brutality-in-the-battle-against-coronavirus-in-mathare

* "Why Ethiopian Jews Are Building a Movement Against Racism in Israel:" https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3en3y/why-ethiopian-jews-are-building-a-movement-against-racism-in-israel

* "Boris Johnson being ‘urged to declare war on woke’ as criticism over trans rights rollback piles up:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/16/boris-johnson-war-on-woke-culture-trans-gender-reform-black-lives-matter/

* "Donald Trump Is an Affront to George Floyd's Memory:" https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/6/11/donald-trump-affront-george-floyds-memory

* "George Floyd death called ‘sacrifice’ in racial equality fight:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/racial-equality-and-culture-shifts-discussed-by-tiffany-d-cross-85020229989

* "Undercounting Those Killed by the N.Y.P.D.:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/police-involved-deaths-new-york-city.html

* "Some Atlanta police don't show up for work for a third day after officers charged in fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks:" https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-shooting-friday/index.html

* "NJ Trooper Who Shot, Killed Man on Parkway Should Be Charged, Victim's Mom Says:" https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/nj-trooper-who-shot-killed-man-on-parkway-should-be-charged-victims-mom-says/2429215/

* "Questions remain on unarmed black man killed by NJ state trooper:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/unarmed-black-man-maurice-gordon-killed-by-white-nj-state-trooper-85020229790

* "Rayshard Brooks police shooting was homicide, says medical examiner:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/15/rayshard-brooks-police-shooting-was-homicide-says-medical-examiner

* "Police don’t need reform, but to be transformed:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/atlanta-police-killing-of-rayshard-brooks-analyzed-by-lawyer-85017669881

* "Rayshard Brooks family lawyer: What was officer’s state of mind?:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/brooks-family-lawyer-on-atlanta-police-killing-unarmed-black-man-85017669520

* "MSNBC analyst Capehart on black girl’s viral police encounter:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/karens-and-black-fears-of-police-discussed-by-jonathan-capehart-85019717933

* "OSU graduate, 22, dies after attending protests in Columbus:" https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/osu-graduate-22-dies-after-attending-protests-in-columbus/article_dcadd6b2-a75d-11ea-94c3-e7751ddd6d55.html

* "SPD Arrested Man Who Shot Video of Kid Allegedly Pepper Sprayed by Cops:" https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/06/08/43864118/spd-arrested-man-who-shot-video-kid-allegedly-pepper-sprayed-by-cops

* "Snohomish County deputy’s use of force under review after video shows him striking a prone suspect repeatedly:" https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/snohomish-county-deputys-use-of-force-under-review-after-video-shows-him-striking-a-prone-suspect-repeatedly/

* "‘Horrified’: New Mexico governor reacts to shooting at Albuquerque statue protest:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-horrified-new-mexico-governor-reacts-to-shooting-at-albuquerque-statue-protest-85182021791

* "A Utah officer pulled his gun on a 10-year-old black boy. He'll keep working, chief says.:" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/11/police-officer-gun-black-boy-utah-woods-cross/1424253001/

A Utah cop in a place with 2% black pop, saw a ten year old inocently playing on his lawn with nothing in his hands, pulled a gun on him, shouted at him to lie on his belly with hands on his head. The Cop lied it was justified as he somehow fit the description of an imaginary adult suspect. Not suspended as level of force was just fine apparently.

* ""Round Up The Green Hats": NYPD Accused Of Deliberately Targeting Legal Observers In Brutal Bronx Mass Arrest:" https://gothamist.com/news/round-green-hats-nypd-accused-deliberately-targeting-legal-observers-brutal-bronx-mass-arrest

* "A driver hit Black Lives Matter protesters. It was a neighboring town’s mayor, protesters say.:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/19/phoenix-oregon-chris-luz-protests/

* "Elderly protester injured by police and trolled by Trump in hiding after death threats:" https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-buffalo-protester-police-martin-gugino-death-threats-a9575996.html

* "Medics say police have targeted them at Seattle protests:" https://crosscut.com/2020/06/medics-say-police-have-targeted-them-seattle-protests

* "Buffalo officials ask state to probe firing of Black officer who stopped white colleague's chokehold:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/buffalo-officials-ask-state-probe-firing-black-officer-who-stopped-n1231016

* "Black Lives Matter sues over violent Seattle police tactics:" https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Black-Lives-Matter-sues-over-violent-Seattle-15327796.php

* "Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop:" https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759

* "Exclusive: Most Americans, including Republicans, support sweeping Democratic police reform proposals - Reuters/Ipsos poll:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-poll-exclusive-idUSKBN23I380

* "Tacoma teachers union wants uniformed police officers removed from schools starting in fall:" https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article243427501.html

* "Garcetti announces LAPD reforms designed to reduce officer misconduct:" https://abc7.com/garcetti-proposes-lapd-reforms-to-reduce-misconduct/6230453/

* "London Breed pushes San Francisco reforms: Police no longer will respond to noncriminal calls:" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-12/san-francisco-police-reforms-stop-response-noncriminal-calls

* "Portland police chief resigns amid George Floyd protests:" https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/20-arrested-in-Portland-Oregon-other-protests-15324914.php

* "Atlanta mayor pushes for reforms after police kill Rayshard Brooks:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/atlanta-mayor-pushes-for-reforms-after-police-kill-rayshard-brooks-85127237668

* "L.A. schools police will return grenade launchers but keep rifles, armored vehicle:" https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-schools-weapons-20140917-story.html

* "N.Y.P.D. Disbands Plainclothes Units Involved in Many Shootings:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/nyregion/nypd-plainclothes-cops.html

* "Cory Booker on GOP police bill: ‘Heavy on symbols, but very light on substance’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/cory-booker-on-gop-police-bill-heavy-on-symbols-but-very-light-on-substance-85294661916

* "A New World Is Possible: Defund Police And Fund Black Lives:" https://www.essence.com/feature/defund-police-fund-black-lives-m4bl/

* "What does 'defund the police' mean and why some say 'reform' is not enough:" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/08/what-does-defund-police-mean-george-floyd-black-lives-matter/5317240002/

* "Colorado passes sweeping police reform bill:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-passes-sweeping-police-reform-bill/

* "Defunding the police means reimagining safety legal expert says:" https://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/-defund-the-police-calls-grow-as-george-floyd-protests-continue-85018181834

* "Statue of Jefferson Davis torn down on Monument Avenue:" https://www.richmond.com/news/local/statue-of-jefferson-davis-torn-down-on-monument-avenue/article_64865aee-76bc-54e1-8e90-2fa749f8877b.html

* "Sen. Jones: Jeff Sessions is ‘not on the right side of history’ on Confederate debate:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/sen-jones-jeff-sessions-is-not-on-the-right-side-of-history-on-confederate-debate-85115461777

* "How The Antifa Fantasy Spread In Small Towns Across The US:" https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/antifa-rumors-george-floyd-protests

* "Southern Illinois towns reckoning with racist past as protests honoring George Floyd, condemning police brutality arise locally:" https://abc7chicago.com/society/southern-il-towns-reckon-with-racist-past-as-local-protests-arise/6247171/

* "Two Black Transgender Women Were Killed This Week, When Will it End?:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/2020/6/12/two-black-transgender-women-were-murdered-week-when-will-it-end

* "Transgender Woman Shot to Death by Colorado State Patrol:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/2020/6/19/transgender-woman-shot-death-colorado-state-patrol

* "All Black Lives Matter: 102 Pics of L.A. Marching for Justice:" https://www.advocate.com/photography/2020/6/15/all-black-lives-matter-102-pics-la-marching-justice#slide-1

* "Black Voices for Trump activist claims Black Lives Matter is a Trojan horse for a ‘Marxist gay agenda’:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/10/black-voices-for-trump-niger-innis-fox-news-black-lives-matter-gay-agenda/

* These are lynchings, not suicides. "Mark Taylor Says Black Men Are Hanging Themselves to Stoke Racial Division and Prevent Trump’s Reelection :" https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mark-taylor-says-black-men-are-hanging-themselves-to-stoke-racial-division-and-prevent-trumps-reelection/

* "An officer was gunned down. The killer was a ‘boogaloo boy’ using nearby peaceful protests as cover, feds say.:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/17/boogaloo-steven-carrillo/

* "Poisoned milkshakes? Police persecution complex is real — and it's dangerous:" https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-16/cops-fast-food-conspiracy-theories-police-persecution-complex

* "‘Legitimacy crisis’: Chris Hayes says NYPD milkshake incident reveals larger police issue:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-legitimacy-crisis-chris-hayes-says-nypd-milkshake-incident-reveals-larger-police-issue-85179461797

* "Fox News runs digitally altered images in coverage of Seattle’s protests, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone:" https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/fox-news-runs-digitally-altered-images-in-coverage-of-seattles-protests-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone/

* "Weber State professor resigns after "abhorrent" tweets:" https://kslnewsradio.com/1926449/weber-state-investigating-professors-abhorrent-tweets/

*****

* "New York cop, in full uniform, performs vile transphobic rap calling for the hanging of Hillary Clinton:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/18/robert-sisco-new-york-city-cop-new-paltz-suspended-transphobic-rap-video-hillary-clinton/

* "Christian Cooper on why Black people don’t need to answer to white people calling the police:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/christian-cooper-on-why-black-people-don-t-need-to-answer-to-white-people-calling-the-police-85121605668

* "Katie Hopkins permanently banned from Twitter for ‘hateful conduct’ after years of vile attacks on trans people:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/19/katie-hopkins-twitter-permanently-suspended-banned-hateful-conduct/

* "Nashville police investigate anti-Semitic vandalism at Holocaust memorial as civil rights intimidation:" https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2020/06/16/nashville-police-investigate-anti-semitic-vandalism-holocaust-memorial/3196443001/

* "For a More Perfect Union, We Still Need More Education, Understanding:" https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/6/18/straight-white-cisgender-people-are-waking-their-privilege

* "Inclusion Is Now a Requirement for Oscars Eligibility:" https://www.advocate.com/film/2020/6/12/inclusion-now-requirement-oscars-eligibility

* "Intro to Anarchy: Power & Violence | Philosophy Tube:"

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* "ACLU-TN Statement on Passage of Abortion Ban Legislation:" https://www.aclu-tn.org/tga-passes-abortion-ban-legislation/

* "Boris Johnson is scrapping long-overdue plans to allow trans people to self-ID despite overwhelming public support, report claims:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/14/trans-self-id-uk-boris-johnson-liz-truss-gender-recognition-act-leak-sunday-times/

* "Cis women sickened over transphobia being spread in their name share defiant messages of solidarity with trans people:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/17/trans-rights-solidarity-cis-women-ally-boris-johnson-gender-recognition-act-lgbt-foundation/

* "Peaceful protest against government's alleged anti-trans bathroom bill planned for central London:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/16/london-trans-rights-protest-gender-recognition-act-reform-boris-johnson/

* "Switzerland inches closer to marriage equality and same-sex adoption as parliament backs crucial bill:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/11/switzerland-same-sex-marriage-equality-bill-national-council-states-vote-lgbt/

* "Polish president calls homophobia criticism ‘fake news’ after literally vowing to devastate LGBT+ rights:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/15/president-poland-andrzej-duda-lgbt-people-gay-marraige-adoption-homophobia-fake-news/

* "Poland's president claims he had a 'constructive' meeting with an LGBT+ activist. The activist tells a different story:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/18/poland-andrzej-duda-lgbt-gay-bartosz-staszewski-law-justice-homophobia/

* "Polish Jews plead with politicians to learn from the horrors of the Holocaust and stop ‘dehumanising’ LGBT+ people:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/17/poland-jew-homophobia-anti-lgbt-andrzej-duda-warsaw-world-war-two-holocaust/

* "With LGBT ruling, Supreme Court hands liberals a surprise victory:" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/15/supreme-court-lgbt-rights-decision-319693

* "SUPREME COURT RULES ANTI-LGBTQ+ JOB DISCRIMINATION IS ILLEGAL:" https://www.advocate.com/news/2020/6/15/supreme-court-rules-anti-lgbtq-job-discrimination-illegal

* "The religious right is seriously flipping out over the Supreme Court ruling in favor of LGBTQ rights:" https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/06/religious-right-seriously-flipping-supreme-court-ruling-favor-lgbtq-rights/

* "This Is How Today's SCOTUS Decision Doesn't Protect LGBTQ+ People:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/2020/6/15/how-todays-scotus-decision-doesnt-protect-lgbtq-people

* "There’s a giant loophole in the historic Supreme Court ruling which means not all LGBT+ Americans are protected:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/17/supreme-court-ruling-lgbt-workplace-discrimination-loophole-human-rights-campaign/

* "Gorsuch, Conservative Favorite Appointed by Trump, Leads Way on Landmark Decision:" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/politics/gorsuch-supreme-court-gay-transgender-rights.html

* "Alphonso David - The Supreme Court's Monumental LGBTQ Ruling and the Human Rights Campaign:"

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* "Republican senator quotes JK Rowling’s essay on trans people to shut down a vote on LGBT+ rights:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/19/jk-rowlings-lgbt-rights-trans-essay-republican-senator-james-lankford-equality-act-supreme-court-discrimination/

* "Chicago PD: Man Killed Trans Woman, Returned to Scene, Shot Her Again:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/2020/6/18/chicago-pd-man-killed-trans-woman-returned-scene-shot-her-again

* "Half a million demand justice for Tete Gulley, a Black trans woman found hanged whose death has been labelled suicide:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/17/tete-gulley-black-trans-woman-violence-murder-suicide-portland-oregon-police/

* "Grindr cannibal who ‘mutilated and ate the testicles’ of Kevin Bacon accused of yet another horrific hook-up attack:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/15/grindr-cannibal-kevin-bacon-mark-latunski-james-carlsen-michigan-murder-bdsm/

* "Two arguments often made about current topics that piss me off:" https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/3034502.html

* "5 Rules For Building a Welcoming Workplace For LGBTQ+ Employees:" https://www.advocate.com/exclusives/2020/6/15/5-rules-building-welcoming-workplace-lgbtq-employees

* "Donald Trump, ever the idiot, just said there was a cure for AIDS. There isn’t:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/16/donald-trump-ever-the-idiot-just-said-there-was-a-cure-for-aids-there-isnt/

* "HIV doctor whose life-saving antibodies were refused says 'humiliating' gay blood ban is fundamentally wrong:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/16/uk-blood-ban-gay-hiv-doctor-coronavirus-blood-plasma/

* CW: Human Remains "A Virtual Tour of the Mütter Museum:"

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* "What should museums do with their dead? (w/ Caitlin Doughty!):"

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* Now available in my state! Seriously, I want to be fertilizer, not pollution when I die. "ECO-DEATH TAKEOVER: Changing the Funeral Industry:"

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* "Iconic Corpse: The Romanov Family:"

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* "How Philadelphia Handled the 1918 Influenza Pandemic with Caitlin Doughty:"

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* CW: Human Remains "The Lake That Never Gives Up Her Dead:"

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* "Should This Funeral Director Be Forgiven?:"

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* "Emissions Are Surging Back as Countries and States Reopen:" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/17/climate/virus-emissions-reopening.html

* "Trump administration proposes rolling back protections for big tech:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tech-230-idUSKBN23O29D

* "Ancient Rome Thrived When the Empire Welcomed Immigrants. We Should Remember What Happened When That Changed:" https://news.yahoo.com/ancient-rome-thrived-empire-welcomed-183037857.html

* "The Queer Canon:" https://www.scribd.com/article/449064894/The-Queer-Canon

* "Activist Miss Major Recounts the First Night at the Stonewall Riots:" https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2019/5/31/activist-miss-major-recounts-first-night-stonewall-riots

* "Gilbert Baker, iconic designer of the Pride flag, was a misunderstood ‘free spirit’ bullied for his sexuality:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/14/gilbert-baker-gay-pride-flag-designer-lgbt-who-designed/

* "The House That Sylvia Built:" https://www.scribd.com/article/449064889/The-House-That-Sylvia-Built

* "10 LGBTQ+ People You Should Know About:"

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* I don't agree with everything she says, but she's an elder and an activist and lived a hard life. "A Vietnam Veteran on Growing Up Transgender:" https://www.manrepeller.com/2018/05/felicia-elizondo-transgender-rights.html

* "James Baldwin’s Blueprint For the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement:" https://www.out.com/activism/2019/5/22/james-baldwins-blueprint-lgbtq-rights-movement

* "5 of the most iconic queer heroes from history who deserve their own statues immediately:" https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/18/british-lgbt-heroes-gay-lesbian-trans-history/

* "The Republican Campaign of Voter Suppression Pt. 1:"

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* "The Republican Campaign of Voter Suppression Pt. 2:"

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* "Who Runs The World? Apparently This Guy. Meet Reference Man:"

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* "Facial Recognition:"

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* "Trump Can't Spin His Choice Of Juneteenth For Tulsa Rally, Pushes It Back A Day:"

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* "The Supreme Court's DACA Decision:"

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* "Bombshells from John Bolton's Book:"

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* "Dul-Sayin' - Observing Juneteenth:"

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* "Quaker Drops Aunt Jemima, a Siri Shortcut Records Police & Trump Sues Over John Bolton's Tell-All:"

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* "The Coronavirus Returns to New Zealand and China, COVID-19 Research & Trump Downplays the Pandemic:"

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* "Trump's Tepid Executive Order & Police Reform in America:"

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* "Conquistador Statue Conflict, the NFL Supports Colin Kaepernick & Walmart Unlocks Beauty Products:"

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* "Supreme Court Victory for LGBTQ Employees, Global Black Lives Matter Marches & Trump's Rally Dilemma:"

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* "Black Pumas "Fast Car":"

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* "Avi Kaplan - Change on the Rise:"

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* "Neil Patrick Harris - Sugar Daddy (Hedwig and the Angry Inch):"

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* Friday a week ago I woke up with the shakes which is a thing that happens. It basically means I have almost no spoons, but he causes are various. It's my body giving leaving the bed a hard veto. Experience suggests that trying to push it is a terrible idea and the best course of action is to try again in an hour or two. This time it took two naps, not one, which is a bad sign.

I was still not right when I did emerge, but what was going on was not immediately apparent. My lungs have been cruddy for a couple of days and my eyes ache and itch, but also they mowed Wednesday and it's allergy season and I'm a lung patient, so let's hope maybe allergies, but the nastier alternative looms as a possiblity. Thursday was a massive sleep disruption which in itself could be causal. The sinus pain and headache are back in force.

The problem is, by morning the headache had morphed in a way that suggests pathogen, and I was queasy and running a mild fever. That is definitely malaise and while my body aches just generally on every given day, this set of body aches is suggestive.

I still have a sense of smell and it's a very low grade fever, so fingers crossed.

Saturday: I'm definitely sick, which is a nuisance and slowing me way the fuck down, but it's familiar kind of sick. My suspicion is influenza that's mutated just enough that last fall's shot only gives partial coverage. This usually doesn't take as long as June to happen, so yay, physical distancing. so I'm shaking and generally ick, but the fever is staying low, and the symptoms are manageable. The rain really helped my sinuses and cleared about half the lung crud, by knocking the allergens out of the air, so today is a bit better than yesterday.

I'm not particularly worried at this point, just irritated at how little work I got done yesterday.

* The fuck Happened to me and particularly the aggregate this week? I ain'n't dead, obviously. My belief that the illness was a nuisance pathogen rather than a dangerous or deadly one was correct. This year's flu was particularly nasty, I'm told. I always get my flu shot very early, because, you know, medically fragile. Coronaviruses mutate fast. Influenza? a coronavirus. Normally they mutate enough for me not to be quite covered earlier in the season, but physical distancing slowed influenza way the fuck down. This one came with an extra nasty headache and my shitty immune system is more interested in own goals then fighting the other team, so it wore me the fuck out and I had to spend an annoying amount of time resting or in too much pain to really concentrate. It's also allergy season and we had landscaping this week and not enough rain. I'd gauge about half the lung involvement is allergen related, as when there was rain that's how much better they were.

It sucks, but even with the Covid resurging not all that scary.

Still, I'd start working on the aggregate, post some links on tumblr, and then have to go to bed, so the aggregate's a mess at this point. Sorry.

* Friday: Case in point. Thursday I did my tumblr programming and prep work for aggregate, but was taken suddenly dizzy when I ought to have been posting backlogged links and had to go to bed. Also, the headache came back, though my lungs are no worse. I'm very ick today generally, but managing.

* The car went to honest mechanic Monday, but they are having construction so it's chaos over there. We got him back Wednesday. Me: The fuck is that smell? Five minutes Later: Oh duh! The disinfected the wheel and controls.

He's doing fine. His connector thingies are clean and he has a new battery.

A benefactor has sent money, so all the bills for the month are covered, plus taxes, and I'll be ordering cat food likely Monday.

The apartment is a mess and I'm still a little ill, but this is normal and I'll be okay.

* My Tumblr follower count was 1361 on 6/18. Fellow 14th century geeks and plague watchers will know that this is smack in the middle of the second great plague pandemic: aka the mortality of children, since a majority of second wave dead were under 20. Extend a little imagination and empathy. Picture the horror of that: A generation that saw 30-60% or the people they knew die a horrible, painful death; that were forced to bury their dead en mass with little or no chance to mourn, survives. They knit society back together, they spend most of a decade having children and rebuilding farms and businesses in the aftermath. Things are looking up, and Bam! The next wave hits and their children and grandchildren start dying.

I think about the Great Pestilence a lot these days.

Yersina pestis didn't just go away: It came back over and over in waves. There was a major outbreak in India in the '90's and people die of it all over the world still, because you need treatment fairly quickly even with modern antibiotics, particularly with pneumonic and septicemic, and your first thought on getting a piercing headache or symptoms of a fever, even in a place where it's endemic like new Mexico, is not "I must have plague! Better go to the hospital." 2018 was a really good year for the US with only one case and no deaths, but 4 people out of sixteen cases died in 2015, which was a bad year. I don't have world figures at my finger tips, but people still die of it somewhere every year, and this is a bacteria where antibiotic treatment is effective and we know a fuck of a lot about it. Just saying. Go on tell the families of the people who died in the 1994 outbreak that the plague just went away after the first wave burnt out 'round about 1351. It would certainly have been a surprise bit of news to the people dying of it in 1665, or 1361.

Just a thing to think about: how rare disease eradication is and how fucking heartbreaking a second wave can be.

* "Keep Me Safe! Help me get a gate organized by Briel Moore:" https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-me-safe-help-me-get-a-gate?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet+expWdV

* "'Sesame Street' Celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride With Rainbow Muppet Message:" https://www.advocate.com/youth/2020/6/11/sesame-street-celebrates-lgbtq-pride-rainbow-muppet-message

* "Reclaiming Their Time:" https://www.scribd.com/article/449064904/Reclaiming-Their-Time

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

* 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

* 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

* "More on the Mashpee Wampanoag Reservation and Reaffirmation Act:" https://amaebi.dreamwidth.org/1769250.html

* "Covid 19 Support for Indigenous Communities:" https://bibliomancer7.tumblr.com/post/616704253038395392/covid-19-support-for-indigenous-communities

* "Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund:" http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

* "NYSCI has a set of activities and resources up on their website:" https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/2999942.html

* "How to Help Librarians and Archivists From Your Living Room:" https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/archives-to-browse-from-home

* "Free Meals:" https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/food/free-meals

* "Learning Through Play: 101 Ways To Keep Young Minds Occupied At Home:" https://www.marksdailyapple.com/importance-of-play/

* Free lessons: https://www.mybluprint.com/

* CDC Foundation: https://www.cdcfoundation.org/give/ways-to-give

* "SUPPORT WORKERS IN CRISIS:" https://ofwemergencyfund.org/

* "Make to Give - Support Our Medical Personnel:" https://www.joann.com/make-to-give-response/

* "Snopes on COVID-19 Fact-Checking:" https://www.snopes.com/2020/03/20/snopes-on-covid-19-fact-checking/

* "Help the California food industry survive this crisis:" https://www.change.org/p/governor-gavin-newsom-support-the-california-food-industries-most-vulnerable-workers

* "Support Artists Impacted By the Covid-19 Pandemic:" https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundraiser

* Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey

* The Indivisble guide exists to help you organize effective resistance: https://indivisible.org/

* Here’s a list of vulnerable republican senators up for election this year:

Martha McSally - Arizona
Susan Collins - Maine
Cory Gardner - Colorado
Thom Tillis - North Carolina
Pat Roberts - Kansas
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler - Georgia
Joni Ernst - Iowa

Here’s a list of vulnerable democratic senators that NEED votes to keep their seats:

Doug Jones - Alabama
Gary Peters - Michigan

* Want to get rid of Mitch McConnell? Help Charles Booker: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ads-cb-dd-google?refcode=ads-dd-google-20200602-ad02&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq6SGian06QIVkxatBh0bFQVPEAAYASAAEgIjnPD_BwE

* Want to get rid of Lindsey Graham? Help Jaime Harrison: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_harrison_fr_q12019_jaime-a?refcode=MS_AD_D-DD_2019.03.08_X_GG_KW__X__eyJjcmVhdGl2ZSI6IkFkZCBEb25hdGlvbiBOb3ciLCJhdWRpZW5jZSI6IkphaW1lSGFycmlzb24ifQ&recurring=TRUE&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn4a_583I5gIVC8RkCh0MowFeEAAYASAAEgIXZfD_BwE

* There's a decent chance of flipping this Senate seat blue. Want to help? https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ads-mek-egsearch_dtd?refcode=ads-200108-gs-evergreensearch-dtd-natl-mix-8753679275-87807510469-410037583123-%2Bmark%20%2Bkelly%20%2Bdonate&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpKSR192K5wIVAsNkCh0EeAFSEAAYASAAEgLY7fD_BwE

* Want to help Ritchie Torres beat a homophobe in New York? https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorsestorres?refcode=20200605fpdn1mid

* Want to support Christy Smith in the primary for Katie Hill's seat?: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dw_ca25

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can not protest in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* Some RL friends of mine who were barely scraping by just lost one of the part time jobs they collectively hold and it's really fucking things up for them. These are good people, who do so much for others. Want to help? https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-a-gig-worker-get-through-the-winter/share

* "Keep Me Safe! Help me get a gate organized by Briel Moore:" https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-me-safe-help-me-get-a-gate?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet+expWdV

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion

* If you are interested in helping, right now the Cat thing we need most is:
https://www.chewy.com/wellness-core-signature-selects/dp/147047

The dry food I was going to try is this one: https://www.chewy.com/blue-buffalo-wilderness-flatland/dp/176663

* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/2108835.html