Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Help Chris and (her dog) Chloe Save Their Home - I don't know this person, but I've seen her in the Slacktivist comment section before, and I hope she is able to raise the money she needs.

2. Canon (August 1) From xkcd.

3. Phistomefel's New Sudoku! (August 3) 1-hour-11-minute sudoku solve video.

4. NSFW and defensibility (August 5) "Just sayin’, there’s a certain irony in LGBTQ games leading the charge."

5. In Gaza, mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation (July 29, via) "'This is not a warning, this is a call to action. This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,' he told journalists in Geneva."

How To Stop Gazans From Dying of Starvation Right Now (July 30) "The solution is tragically simple. First, open all viable land crossings—not for hours and not with caveats, but at scale, with fast screening and consistency, to flood Gaza with aid immediately. We know that in the ceasefire months of January and February this year, the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods made a difference immediately.  Second, ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations to reach children and their families—from Rafah to northern Gaza. Third, the political track still matters.  A ceasefire remains vital. Without an end to hostilities, no humanitarian corridor can function safely, Palestinian civilians cannot be reached at scale and the hostages will not return home."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Adapting to Decline (August 4) "In other words, the fired BLS head will be replaced by someone who will cook the books for Trump."

2. Corporation for Public Broadcasting to close after US funding cut (August 1)

3. Confederate statue toppled during Black Lives Matter protests will be reinstalled (August 5) "'The decision to honor Albert Pike by reinstalling the Pike statue is as odd and indefensible as it is morally objectionable,' Norton said. 'He resigned in disgrace after committing a war crime and dishonoring even his own Confederate military service. Even those who want Confederate statues to remain standing would have to justify awarding Pike any honor, considering his history.'"

4. Their husbands were deported to Laos. Now they’re picking up the pieces together (August 5) "Cassie, who is Laotian-American, said her husband was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. 'They left when he was one, so he pretty much knows nothing of it,' Cassie said. 'So he’s never stepped foot in Laos until now.'"

"The Case for Open Borders": Reparations

Political cartoon showing an American bald eagle dominating a large area of the globe. Image source.

Here's another quote from "The Case for Open Borders". From pages 210-211:

15. Open Borders As Reparations and Decolonization

The United States has what could be termed "an imperial debt" to a number of countries throughout the world. "US responsibility for helping create the conditions that drive much of the out-migration from Honduras," Joseph Nevins writes, "should negate any justification by the US government to deport and deny rights of residence to people of Honduran origin." Given that Honduras is less exception to and more exemplar of the destabilizing effects of US imperialistic intervention, the same argument could be made for dozens of other countries, including but not limited to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, and Cambodia.

Sri Lankan novelist and activist A. Sivanandan's famous and succinct line explains why migrants move to countries that had colonized their homes: "We are here because you were there."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. How Star Trek’s Federation Actually Abandons Its Ideals (July 30) 43-minute video from Steve Shives.

2. TobyMac - Made To Love (Live from Alive & Transported) (2009) Christian music from a decade or so ago. I've always liked this song.

3. France, U.K., others plan to recognize a Palestinian state. What does that change? (August 1)

4. Debating Fascists (July 25) "This was a major topic of conversation in the early 2000s amongst scientists, who worried over whether it was worthwhile to debate “the other side” on issues like climate change and evolution."

5. An Amazing Truth About ALL Sudokus That We DIDN'T Know (July 27) 1-hour-23-minute sudoku solve video.

6. An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo (August 2) Cool, I'm happy for them. It's interesting how people's feelings and beliefs about frozen embryos had such a big influence on this whole process, all the paperwork, transporting the embryos, etc. Would have gone completely differently if the people involved had different beliefs about frozen embryos. Anyway, congrats to them~

7. YouTube will identify and restrict minors’ accounts with AI (July 30, via) Uh what? This seems like a terrible idea, because the algorithm is going to get it wrong sometimes. Of course it will get it wrong sometimes. You're never going to get an accuracy rate close enough to 100%.

8. Holocaust Memory in a Time of Genocide (July 31, via) "At this point, the fracture between the “universal” and the “particular-Jewish” components of Holocaust memory became an unbridgeable chasm: the “pro-Jewish” sentiment, which morphed into unconditional support for Israel and its murderous war following October 7, was completely severed from the universal sentiment of human rights."

9. Zootopia 2 | Trailer (July 30) Cool!

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Jon Stewart Reacts to Colbert's Cancellation & Trump's "Bawdy" Epstein Doodles | The Daily Show (July 22) "And if you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourselves so innocuous, that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king's radar, A, why will anyone watch you? And you are ****ing wrong."

2. Trump push to ban birthright citizenship unconstitutional, US court rules (July 23, via) "The three-judge ruling panel in the 9th US circuit court of appeals echoed a district court in New Hampshire that blocked the executive order earlier this month."

3. Innocence, identity, and blood libel (part 1) (July 28) and Innocence, identity, and blood libel (part 2) 

4. Federal judge delays expiration of TPS for Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Nepalese (July 31) "It affects about 60,000 immigrants whose temporary protected status was set to expire. The protections for the Nepalese were set to terminate on Aug. 5. The protections for Nicaraguans and Hondurans would have ended Sept. 8. Most of them have been living in the U.S. for more than 20 years." This is just wild to me, that the MAGAs are arguing that people who've been in the US for over 20 years should just leave- like why? Why should they leave? Just because the MAGAs hate immigrants, not any actual reality-based reason.