Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* "The Guardian view on Thailand’s election: staving off the real reckoning:" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/17/the-guardian-view-on-thailands-election-staving-off-the-real-reckoning

* "Thai Trans Businesswoman Running To Become Thailand's Prime Minister:" https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2019/02/thai-trans-businesswoman-running-to.html

* "Japan's PM nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize on U.S. request:...:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-trump-japan-idUSKCN1Q6041

* "Top Trump appointees promoted selling nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia over objections from national security officials, House Democratic report says:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-trump-appointees-promoted-selling-nuclear-power-plants-to-saudi-arabia-over-objections-from-national-security-officials-house-democratic-report-says/2019/02/19/6a719762-3456-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.20af686f1238

* "WH plan to give nuclear tech to Saudi Arabia under investigation:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/w-h-plan-to-give-nuclear-tech-to-saudi-arabia-under-investigation-1445195843634

* "A 'rush to transfer' nuclear tech to the Saudis:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/a-rush-to-transfer-nuclear-tech-to-the-saudis-1445121603690

* "Andrew McCabe Couldn’t Believe the Things Trump Said About Putin:" https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/mccabe-warns-trump-mueller-undeterred/583000/

* "Ebola Outbreak & Chapo Guilty Verdict: VICE News Tonight Full Episode (HBO):"

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* "Maine paid for 40 rooms at Trump hotel for LePage, staff:" https://www.pressherald.com/2019/02/17/maine-paid-for-40-rooms-at-trump-hotel-for-lepage-staff/

* "Trump Has Publicly Attacked the Russia Investigation More Than 1,100 Times:" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/19/us/politics/trump-attacks-obstruction-investigation.html

* "Intimidation, Pressure and Humiliation: Inside Trump’s Two-Year War on the Investigations Encircling Him:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/us/politics/trump-investigations.html

* "Trump denies asking Whitaker to put ally in charge of hush money investigation:" https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/19/trump-denies-whitaker-investigation-1175607

* "Nadler wants Whitaker to 'clarify' his testimony:" https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/13/nadler-whitaker-testimony-trump-1169350

* "Roger Stone ordered to appear in court over Instagram post targeting judge:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/19/roger-stone-court-instagram-post-judge

* "‘He’s on edge’: Roger Stone silencing expected after barbed comments:" https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/19/roger-stone-gag-order-1176014

* "Stone takes swipe at judge, promptly files 'notice of apology':" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/stone-takes-swipe-at-judge-promptly-files-notice-of-apology-1444578371566

* "William Barr’s Son-in-Law Just Landed a Job Advising Trump on “Legal Issues”:" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/william-barr-son-in-law-white-house

* "NYT bombshell outlines Trump's efforts to obstruct investigations:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/nyt-bombshell-outlines-trump-s-efforts-to-obstruct-investigations-1445191747935

* "Trump took no action on Mike Flynn except lying: NYT revelation:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-took-no-action-on-mike-flynn-except-lying-nyt-revelation-1445192771933

* "Rosenstein plans to leave Justice Department next month:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rosenstein-plans-to-leave-justice-dept-next-month/2019/02/18/f94af3c4-33ee-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.31326b684279

* "Trump to nominate transportation deputy to replace DAG Rosenstein:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-to-nominate-transportation-deputy-to-replace-dag-rosenstein-1445161539641

* "New report adds to questions of whether Whitaker lied to Congress:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/new-report-adds-to-questions-of-whether-whitaker-lied-to-congress-1445198915626

* "Whitaker answers to Congress getting second look from Democrats:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/whitaker-answers-to-congress-getting-second-look-from-democrats-1445192259573

* "Heather Nauert Withdraws From Consideration as U.N. Ambassador:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/politics/heather-nauert-withdraws-un-ambassador.html

* "Marc Short Returns to Administration as Pence’s Chief of Staff:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/us/politics/marc-short-pence-chief-staff.html

* "Trump to approve lean Space Force:" https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/18/trump-space-force-1182572

* "Stacey Abrams: Voter suppression in Georgia is 'nearly seamless':" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-former-georgia-gubernatorial-candidate-testified-before-house-democrats-tuesday-on-voting-rights-1445136963582

* Sigh. "Bernie Sanders launches second presidential campaign with big fundraising haul:" https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/politics/bernie-sanders-2020-presidential/index.html

* "Coalition of states sues Trump over national emergency to build border wall:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/coalition-of-states-sues-trump-over-national-emergency-to-build-border-wall/2019/02/18/9da8019c-33a8-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a614b68f9049

* "Trump Will 'Protect' Emergency Declaration If Congress Disapproves, Miller Says:" https://www.npr.org/2019/02/18/695620579/trump-will-protect-emergency-declaration-if-congress-disapproves-miller-says

Want to tell your Congress Critters that you oppose the pretend National Emergency? 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/

* "New York City to Ban Discrimination Based on Hair:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/style/hair-discrimination-new-york-city.html

* "What I Told My White Friend When He Asked For My Black Opinion On White Privilege:" https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/08/told-white-friend-black-opinion/?mc_cid=9db1fd6bc6&mc_eid=7541af514b

* "Who Can Be A Cop?:" https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/02/14/desperate-for-recruits-police-consider-non-citizens

* "House Armed Forces Committee Hearing On Trump Trans Troop Ban Happening Soon:" https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2019/02/house-armed-forces-committee-hearing-on.html

* "No One Really Knows What to Do With All of America’s Unclaimed Corpses:" https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/unclaimed-bodies-problem/582625/

* "Jazz on the Edge of Change:" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/opinion/the-year-jazz-came-into-its-own.html

* "So Much News, So Little Time - Colin Kaepernick's NFL Settlement & Jussie Smollett's Alleged Attack:"

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* "President Trump's Border Emergency:"

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* "All The President's 2020 Challengers:"

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* "Peppa Pig Is Corrupting America's Youth!:"

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* "The National Emergency We 'Didn't Need':"

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* "The Trump Quote That Stood Out To McCabe:"

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* "Trump Calls on Europe to Take Back ISIS Fighters & New York City Bans Natural Hair Discrimination:"

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* "Bernie Sanders's 2020 Bid & Quaint Democratic Scandals:"

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* "The Unravelling of Jussie Smollett's Hate Crime Claims:"

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* I did manage to get nearly adequate sleep for the first time in nearly a week and also made it out the door in time to get my tag reupped. My battered blue twenty one year old beast is legal for another year! Thank you again, benefactors, who have kept me afloat for what is financially the hardest month in every year. You are all my heroes.

I think I figured out how I messed up my wrist. I had a minor fall yesterday which borked my left second biggest toe and I caught myself with my left hand. I was so focused on the toe damage I could easily have missed injuring my wrist.

* "The Walking Dead: Season 9, Episode 9: Adaption:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2019/02/the-walking-dead-season-9-episode-9.html

* I really love Shoma Uno's Sonata free skate routine. When he's on, he embodies the music the way the best ballet dancers might while still having the jumps to compete with the best technical folks in the world. I am and always have been a sucker for a good all around skater with real grace and personality and watching him do something that suits him so well has been a delight this season.

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

* Trans Helplines: https://www.translifeline.org/

* Want to complaint about Betsy DeVos's plan to coddle college rapists? https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/29/2018-25314/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-in-education-programs-or-activities-receiving-federal#open-comment

* Donate to HIAS to help refugees: https://act.hias.org/page/6048/donate/1

* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/

* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border

* The Rainbow Road and other ways to help Gay Refugees: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/160470723507/the-rainbow-railroad-is-helping-gay-men-escape

* Upset about the abuse of big cats by people who shouldn't be allowed to keep them? Big cat rescue is trying to change laws to protect wild animals. "Cat Laws:" https://bigcatrescue.org/cat-laws/

* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can not protest in person, here are some other options:
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion

* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html

* "Coalition ministers attack protesters' 'disrespect' and call for investigation – as it happened:" https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/nov/30/malcolm-tunbull-george-brandis-bill-shorten-nick-xenophon-building-watchdog-politics-live

* "What will CIA report on Russian influence mean?:"

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* "Vice: FBI may have been investigating Trump:"

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* "Will there be checks and balances on Trump’?:"

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* "Expert calls Trump ‘emolument magnet’:"

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* "Trump supporter rant videos go viral:"

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* "Trump to champion charter schools?:"

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* "Veterans stand with Dakota Access Pipeline protesters:"

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* "Decision to stop pipeline hangs in balance:"

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* "What happens to Flint under Trump?:"

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* "Ohio law intended to "protect" women actually made abortion more dangerous, says study:" https://mic.com/articles/153154/ohio-laws-intended-to-protect-women-actually-made-abortion-more-dangerous-says-study?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=style&utm_campaign=social#.1vOD22OV9

* "Homophobic attacks in UK rose 147% in three months after Brexit vote:" https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/08/homophobic-attacks-double-after-brexit-vote

* "World needs $90tn infrastructure overhaul to avoid climate disaster, study finds:" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/06/climate-change-infrastructure-coal-plants-green-investment

* I spent the whole evening Sunday doing baking and paper bureaucracy. A bit after midnight I went out in the rain to hit the library drop and pick up some things the kitchen needed. By the time I got there, they were rebooting registers. I got my things anyway, and they said it was all right to unload my gear while they waited to get back on line. (About five minutes by the time I'd gotten my pam, parchment paper, baggies, etc). I chattered with the register folks and wrote up my check so the line could move as fast as possible once the computers were up. In that short time the rain turned to big wet flurries. In the five or so minutes it took to get home, it had begun to stick. I must go out tomorrow, so fingers crossed it has melted by afternoon.

* "Sunday Sweets: A Gingerbread Jam!:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2016/12/11/sunday-sweets-a-gingerbread-jam.html

* "White Trash Zombie Apocalypse (White Trash Zombie Series #3) by Diana Rowland:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2013/07/white-trash-zombie-apocalypse-white.html

*****

* Suicide Crisis numbers: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/153016816845/non-us-crisis-line-list

* Victim of a Hate Crime? Report to the police first, but also report here to help the SPLC track incidents: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate

* Trans Relief Project: http://transrelief.com/

* "Donate to the SPLC:" https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463

* "A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support:" http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078?rev=1478710019591&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

* General Charities list to help groups being targeted in Trump's America: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/153111297079/charities-that-may-need-some-love-in-the-upcoming

* Where to donate to help Immigrants: http://colinfirth.tumblr.com/post/152963467726/carecen-la-center-for-community-change

* Ways to protest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#

* More ways to protest "So here’s the deal:" http://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/153516131819/so-heres-the-deal

* "10 ways we can help Standing Rock Indian Reservation.:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/153755459138/dooder-tooder-this-is-a-photo-my-friend-posted

* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* Given some polls coming out, I should probably remind people that it's nearly impossible to accurately scientifically poll Alaska, for a bunch of reasons that should be obvious if one stops to think. I'd not want to put money on anyone really knowing what's going on until votes are counted.

* "Uber Really, Really Doesn’t Pay Very Well, According to a Lawsuit Filed in North Carolina:" http://www.indyweek.com/news/archives/2016/09/02/uber-really-really-doesnt-pay-very-well-according-to-a-lawsuit-filed-in-north-carolina

* It makes me happy this exists even though I'll never eat there. "This Restaurant Serves Food From All Over The World, Courtesy Of Grandmas:" http://www.refinery29.com/2016/10/126082/enoteca-maria-staten-island-grandma-restaurant?utm_source=tumblr.com&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=h3&utm_campaign=end&utm_campaign=watch_end&utm_campaign=watch_embed

* "White Privilege is Hard:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/151876384377/hustleinatrap-ghettablasta-swagintherain

* I had a fascinating time watching BBC News this evening on a meta level. One of the amusing moments included an interviewer trying desperately to lead a Nobel Prize winning physicist into giving her the sound bites she wanted about Brexit, which he stubbornly refused to make bold political statements outside his wheelhouse and was clearly frustrated she wouldn't let him properly talk about his actual work. It reminded me of that time... I'm thinking it was CNN's Wolf Blitzer, but don't quote me on that, tried to force the nice Atheist lady to thank god she survived the tornado and she wasn't having it, or the time James Lipton was confronted by Mr. Radcliffe refusing to play along on his Christian conceit. Another one was a reporter trying to talk to people about Trump at a High School "Football Derby." O.o He pretty clearly had no idea what was going on, but his bemused expressions and clueless side comments were pretty hilarious. (I'm sure an American reporter at a cricket match would be just as funny). The lady trying to explain our electoral college system was professional and sounded knowledgeable. I really don't want to sound like I'm attacking the BBC; it's just that I sort of collect these sorts of things as they are very human and both unconscious bias and culture without context interest me, and BBC contributors are human just like our own reporters and historians.

* Apparently the closed captioning thinks "Mike Pence" is "My Pants."

* They are using Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" to sell crap. This makes me terribly sad.

* One of the problems I'm noticed with modern horror movie remakes is, they decide to take sympathetic characters from the original and "Improve" them by making them bicker constantly and have no real redeeming characteristics. An example of this is the Fright Night remake. They sucked out the snarky humor and replaced it with pointless bickering.

I think it's even worse in a lot of new 21st century horror films, where the main characters are so unpleasant one is already rooting for them to quickly die horrible deaths so that they can be replaced by a new, more pleasant cast of characters at least some of whom one can root for to survive. Instead they like to waste the first fifteen minutes or more on "character development" that is all pointless bickering and them being all around shitty human beings. These are not people I'd spend time around in real life and as movie characters, I just want them to hurry up and die. I'm not saying that one needs to like all the characters. The Dawn of the Dead remake did pretty well with one designated asshole, but mostly the other characters being people one can reasonably care about. The problem is with things like the Ruins or the Cabin Fever prequel I am sort of watching as I type this. (I never saw Cabin Fever, but I am easily lured by outbreak movies on late night TV.) I hate these people except the one Latina Doctor who has been a minor character to this point. Everyone else is shitty and the villains motivation and behavior make no sense. I'd be happier if they'd just nuked the island with everyone on it at the outset. Instead it goes on and on and on.... I've seen so many post apocalyptic and survival horror things like this in the last decade and a half that they blur together: The assholes in a global pandemic road trip with that guy who was on SVU in a small role, Dairy of the Dead, a bunch of B and Z zombie films, the one where they kidnap horror fans and slowly kill them in genre savvy ways, a bunch of plague ones, the really racist one with Romani villains I only managed fifteen minutes of because racism.... Seriously, it's looking like a trend to me. Deaths in these thing have no emotional impact because it’s impossible to care about the characters and survival means as little or less I'm watching this trash for free while I work on stuff, and I don't finish a lot of them. I can't imagine spending actual money and trying to sit through them in a theater with nothing better to do.

Not even shirtless David Tennent in leather pants could fix the Fright Night remake, which also had another major problem that I also noticed in the whole endless Neegan intro scene in Walking Dead (besides the insulting cliff hanger which better minds than mine have discussed ad nauseum): They do not know when to end a scene. There is a scene in the Fright night remake where Colin Farrell's villain comes over to borrow beer and is clearly hoping the kid will invite them in. Both actors actually do a great job in the scene. Farrell is truly unnerving and menacing while not quite crossing the line and the late Anton Yelchin acted the shit out of his end. The first portion of the scene makes one's skin crawl, but the vampire/serial killer lingers and lingers and lingers and menaces and menaces and it gets... boring. The scene goes flat. if they ruthlessly cut 2/3 of the screen time it would have had 10x the impact. It's the same thing with the endless Neegan menacing scene in the walking dead cliff hanger. I love me some Jeffery Dean Morgan and the first few minutes were excellent, but it when on and on and on and my attention wandered and it was still going on and on and on and then cheated the ending. They'd have been better served with 1/4 the menacing and the reveal just before credits. Maximum impact instead of numbing me and then asking me to care about the scene end I had to wait all summer for.

* Oh God, Kyle Kinane's cheese steak rant from his new special? I think everyone from Philly makes that rant. I know I do every time cheese steaks or trips to Philly come up. We all have a Pizza rant too.

*****

* Hurricane Matthew has been catastrophic for the people of Haiti. 800 or more are dead and 60,000 or more displaced. Want to help? https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief?donationProdId=prod12750029&scode=RSG00000E017&gclid=COnZ5tmJys8CFRBEfgodzWoPXQ

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* How shitty a human being is Mitch McConell? He is using health care for 9/11 first responders as a political bargaining chip? how shitty a human being is Paul Ryan? He's trying to drain money that should be used for their health care away even though they are literally dying because of their heroism and patriotism. They are happy to pay lip service to them and to wave the bloody shirt come election time, but they will not put their money where their mouths are. Tell Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan to stop blocking the Zadroga Act!

* "GOP Lawmaker: They Shouldn’t Have Gone To Planned Parenthood If They Didn’t Want To Be Shot:" http://freakoutnation.com/2015/12/gop-lawmaker-they-shouldnt-have-gone-to-planned-parenthood-if-they-didnt-want-to-be-shot/

* "Sandy Hook Senator Slams Gun-loving GOP: It’s Not Congress’ Job To Pray:" http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/12/05/sandy-hook-senator-slams-gun-loving-gop-its-not-congress-job-to-pray-image/

* "Wisconsin Begins Drug Testing For Unemployment And Food Stamp Applicants, Which May Be Illegal:" http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/11/09/3720495/wisconsin-begin-drug-tests/

* "Man Accused Of Trashing Florida Mosque Has History Of Anti-Islam Social Media Posts:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/leticiamiranda/man-accused-of-trashing-florida-mosque-has-history-of-anti-i#.dfaLRkYKZ

* "Fox pundit says ‘white privilege is racist’: I confront my whiteness by ‘going to the tanning salon’:" http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/fox-pundit-says-white-privilege-is-racist-i-confront-my-whiteness-by-going-to-the-tanning-salon/

* "Why So Many U.S. Students Are Learning Lies About America’s Racial Past:" http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-history-class-dilemma/411601/?utm_source=SFTwitter

* Outside of the obvious issue with Christian Extremists and pro-Confederacy White Supremacists (I have had friends who were fired from Texas or Deep South districts for teaching about things like the north winning the Civil War, Slavery being bad, or Buffalo Soldiers) getting to pick the textbooks for the entire nation, there is the problem that many and in some places most school districts prefer to hire English teachers to teach both English and Social studies instead of hiring English teachers to teach English and Social studies teachers to teach social studies. This has to do with Educational "Reform" incentives that punish schools for "wasting time" on educating Social Studies and Science when the so-called Reformers want them to be teaching to the math and Reading tests. A lot of this has to do with the Republican anti-education agenda. Students who understand science won't go along with Science Denial. Students who understand history and our government are statistically way more likely to vote and the last thing Republicans want is an educate electorate, particularly one of a Socio-Economic status that would have them going to public and private school.

When I taught social studies, I tied what they were learning into current events. I made it about how various events and factors influenced other events and factors. Good history teaching is about teaching students to evaluate evidence and analyze biases. Teaching history well requires not just a knowledge of the material, but a knowledge of historiography and teaching methods, but we've decided as a country that rather than have expert social studies teachers teaching social studies, we should have non-experts make children memorize names and dates. Oh course the children are bored. Sure real historians know key anchor dates, but actual historians look the dates up for the smaller stuff, because what is way more important is to know the relationship between things. The Story matters in History, just like who is telling the story matters. Because we've decided to not hire actual history teachers to teach Social Studies, you lose the Stories. You lose the way the politics and the economics and the social history all effect each other. You lose the nuance and the interesting anecdotes and the way history is a thing that is created out of primary sources and the rule interpretation has in the way we look at both past and current events. You also lose the moments where the students ask really good questions about the material and get answers that aren't in the text book. Some of my best days as a teacher were like that, like the time we were discussing 19th Century reform movements and the kids put that together with things they were learning in science class to ask questions about historical disease epidemics, that time they asked about Anthrax during current events and we talked about rational risk assessments using stuff they knew from math class, that time we were doing Anne Frank in English and they wanted to know about the rise of Hitler and the NAZI party in Germany. (8th grade history ends around the start of the 20th Century and they don't get the 1930's until high school). Because I was Social Studies/English duel certified, with most of my training in history, I could improvise when faced with student curiosity in ways someone relying on the text book likely couldn't. (My policy was I was willing to let student questions "distract me" from the scheduled lesson as long as it was educational. They thought they were winning; I knew they were learning. For example, "Why do we have to learn about the supreme court? I bet you can't even list the members without looking!" Led to me explaining that the Supreme Court was the last defense for their Civil Rights, including who was appointed by whom and why that mattered, topped with several interesting and alarming stories about the Supreme Court Justices and some key cases. It was a very productive ten minute discussion, I thought, and I can only hope it made them more thoughtful voters. Most teachers brush off "Why do we have to learn this" questions. I loved them, because I always had a really good answer tying in what we were learning to things happening in the world right then. My experience was that most middle and high schoolers get why they have to learn math and reading, but don't intuitively grasp why Social studies matter and how it is very relevant to them as citizens. They just think we are torturing them or no good reason. I always had answers that made them think and they were so much less hostile about the whole process when they could see the purpose. Good teaching of social studies is not an impossible goal if you have teachers that love what they are doing; it;s nearly impossible if you hire people to teach it who don't like or understand what they are doing.

* Today the stolen sleep was not Hector's fault, as he was being very good. Instead it was multiple phone calls waking me and a whole hour of surprise emergency phone bureaucracy mid sleep cycle. Fun! So in person bureaucracy has been added to my Wednesday to do list and I get to do a document hunt in the mean time. Extra fun! I was meant to do a cat supply and lightbulb run today, but the pain was terrible, so I just got toothpaste and a half off string of light for the livingroom from a shop a couple blocks away. (The lighting design in the apartment is terrible. There is enough light for the kitchen and my office area, but the livingroom requires supplemental light and the standing lamp is dead. Replacing it is on the list with supplemental shelving as long term goals requiring both money and multiple trips to good will to find the right object for the space, so waaaaay long term at this point. Half off emergency lighting is an attractive stop gap at this point, this being the season for it). Anyway, I then spent a couple hours doing various things around the house in between long rests.

Tomorrow I'm short sleeped for a scheduled scene and Dhraegon's Stag Party. Wednesday is bureaucracy, forage, cat supplies, and present making, so no proper sleep then. There are people Thurday, and friday starts the wedding stuff for my character. So next proper sleep is a whole week away! *headdesk*

* Happy Chanukkah to those of you celebrating!

* "Introducing Stannis: Book 1 vs. Season 1:" http://turtle-paced.tumblr.com/post/126247067372/introducing-stannis-book-1-vs-season-1

* "Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks:" http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/134667752325/famous-poems-rewritten-as-limericks#notes

* EBAY:

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY 2010 (LE, Halloweenie): (Company says: Dewy green leaves colored by Moroccan amber, ginseng, and rooibos.) Just Below Label. http://www.ebay.com/itm/301814539367?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* The U S Embassy in Cuba opened yesterday.

* "MHP: Walker, not Trump, is 'most outrageous candidate':"

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* "Judge Sends Children to Detention Center for Refusing to Speak to Allegedly Abusive Father:" http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/07/09/judge_sends_children_to_detention_center_for_refusing_to_speak_to_allegedly.html

* "Where’s My Cut?: On Unpaid Emotional Labor:" http://www.metafilter.com/151267/Wheres-My-Cut-On-Unpaid-Emotional-Labor

* "East Lansing Is Getting a New Sex-Ed Curriculum :" http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/07/15/22551061/east-lansing-is-getting-a-new-sex-ed-curriculum

* Given my physical state, I haven't been up to doing a proper debunk of the latest attack on Planned Parenthood, but this says what I would likely have said and more, more elegantly than I would have: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/124697634377/mediamattersforamerica-dont-buy-into-the

* "Single mom arrested for ‘abandoning’ her kids at food court while interviewing for job 30 feet away:" http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/single-mom-arrested-for-abandoning-her-kids-at-food-court-while-interviewing-for-job-30-feet-away/

* "More questions than answers in Sandra Bland case:"

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* "Sure, Whites Are Privileged—but Not Me Personally!:" http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/sure-whites-are-privileged--but-not-me-personally

* "Eric Garner's family renews call for criminal charges against NYPD officer:" http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/14/eric-garners-family-wants-officer-charged.html?utm_content=nobylines&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

* "Clock has 'turned back' on voting rights:"

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* "Cara Delevingne: "My Sexuality Is Not A Phase":" http://www.advocate.com/bisexuality/2015/07/19/cara-delevinge-my-sexuality-not-phase

* "Indonesia's Transgender Muslims, Known As Waria, Celebrate Ramadan:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/indonesias-transgender-muslims-celebrate-ramadan-photos_55a53543e4b0ecec71bd0ced

* "AZ jails and prisons evaluating transgender policies:" http://www.kpho.com/story/29569709/az-jails-and-prisons-evaluating-transgender-policies

* "Ask a Mortician- Hair & Mourning Jewelry :"

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* "The Seldom-Seen Faces Of The 'Humans Of Kabul':" http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/07/18/419549880/the-seldom-seen-faces-of-the-humans-of-kabul

* Where have I been? The heat exhaustion pretty much laid me out. It was overcast today, which helps. I was well enough to bring in the lilies and rearrange the garden.

I finished Staying Power, which I’ve been reading off and on for something like two months. The research involved blows me away and I learned a lot, particularly about the late 19th and 20th Century stuff. It was just incredibly hard to read, For the same reason things about the colonization of the Americas and the resulting genocides are hard to read. For the same reason US History is hard to read. English Imperialism, slavery, racism, police violence, etc. so much like our own, but so much less talked about. These pages drip with the blood of real people, and no person with any decency can read them without feeling the unrelenting cruelty of it. A lot has happened since this was published as far as scholarship on people of African and Asian decent in Medieval England, and we are still trying to piece together that story, so that isn’t to be found in these pages. This book starts with Tudors and goes to the end of the ‘70’s. I am still stunned by the amount of material here organized and documented. It is a reference from which so much scholarship out to spring.

I have read “Black London,” one of these scholarly daughters, some months ago, well written and researched. It goes into depth about the lives of individual 17th and 18th century black Londoners. I hope more such jewels of scholarship will be written in future. These lives deserve to be studied and known. Where their voices survive, they ought to be heard. It’s time to stop whitewashing the past and to stop hiding the blood stains.

* The last of the lilies: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/124693900227/the-last-of-the-lilies

* How to make Spiderman relevant: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/124723030577/she-got-the-jazz-plintoon-reblogs

* Villains: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/124663857054/skarrin-thewightknight-thewightknight-tom

* "The Strain, Season 2, Episode 1: BK, NY :" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2015/07/the-strain-season-2-episode-1-bk-ny.html

* Ebay Time:
AUTUMN FANCIES 2013 (LE, Halloweenies): (Company says: Dry grasses bathed in amber light, muted by gentle shadows.) Top of label.:http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/301667294922?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* My RL oldest continuous friend is doing a fundraiser: http://www.gofundme.com/x9g7q2k

* Trying to stay afloat until August: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com

* Fighting continues in Kiev despite claims of a truce. Casualties continue to mount. The EU talks of sanctions. President Obama has issued a threat. Parts of Kiev continue to burn and people keep dying.

Added at 4:19AM: The police brought in reinforcements to try to take Independence square in violation of the truce, but the protesters repulsed them. Fighting continues to spread in Kiev. The official figure is seventeen dead, but honestly, it sounds like people are guessing. Most of the dead appear to be protesters shot in the head and neck by police with assault rifles.

* "UK Court: David Miranda Detention Legal Under Terrorism Law:" https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/19/uk-court-david-miranda-detention-legal-terrorism-law/

* "VW workers may block southern U.S. deals if no unions: labor chief:" http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-vw-usplant-idUSBREA1I0S820140219

* "Tom Perkins' big idea: The rich should get more votes:" http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/14/investing/tom-perkins-vote/index.html

* "We Did the Math on Tom Perkins' Vote-Buying Scheme:" http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/tom-perkins-math-pierce

* "One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society:" http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html

* "After background checks were scrapped in Missouri:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/after-background-checks-were-scrapped-mo

* "BART riders get measles scare from UC Berkeley student:" http://www.techtimes.com/articles/3454/20140215/bart-riders-get-measles-scare.htm

* "America’s First President Was The Tea Party’s Worst Nightmare:" http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/17/3297131/george-washington-tea-partys-worst-nightmare/#

* "Noose tied on Ole Miss integration statue:" http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Noose-tied-on-Ole-Miss-integration-statue-5245153.php

* "The Problem With Little White Girls (and Boys):" https://medium.com/p/b84d4011d17e

* "Black Boy Interrupted:" http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/black-boy-interrupted/283881/

* "The evolutionary puzzle of homosexuality:" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26089486

* "How Same-Sex Marriage Opponents Are Trying to Defend Their State Bans:" http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/02/how-same-sex-marriage-opponents-are-trying-defend-their-state-bans/358095/

* "May a Man Marry a Man? A Medieval Debate:" http://www.religiousleftlaw.com/2014/01/may-a-man-marry-a-man-a-medieval-debate.html

* "If you step on my foot, you need to get off my foot.:" http://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/77147550594/if-you-step-on-my-foot-you-need-to-get-off-my

* "Rubber-Duck-Race Bill Expected to Pass in Wisconsin:" http://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/02/rubber-ducky.html

* "Made in Maine scent makes farmers more attractive to livestock:" http://www.wmtw.com/news/made-in-maine-scent-makes-farmers-more-attractive-to-livestock/24434818

* Facial reconstruction of a vodka bottle skull.: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151824863486326.1073741845.91373316325&type=1

* "Skeleton Typogram, A Human Skeleton Illustration Made Using The Words For Each Bone:" http://laughingsquid.com/skeleton-typogram-a-human-skeleton-illustration-made-using-the-words-for-each-bone/