Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. ‘It’s AI blackface’: social media account hailed as the Aboriginal Steve Irwin is an AI character created in New Zealand (January 15, via) "The choice to create an avatar of an Indigenous person has raised ethical concerns."

2.  Because of Who You Are - Vicki Yohe (2008) I like this worship song, but in a complicated ex-evangelical way.

Same thing for this video, of the song "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."

I like the song. I like the singer's passion. I'm really into that. But seeing the crowd of Christians participating in this worship song, I just really feel unsafe in that kind of environment.

3. Chilean Cherries: Why Prices in China Plunge Every Winter (January 16) "To reach tables in China, Chilean cherries need to travel more than 19,000 kilometers, and for a long time, air freight was the only viable option. However, with the widespread application of cold chain technology, maritime transportation has become dominant in recent years."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion. (January 14) "As ProPublica has reported, doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients."

2. Rapid Response Networks in the Twin Cities (January 15) "When ICE operations switched to fast, random street abductions and door knocks, the only possible way to predict where they would act was to identify ICE vehicles as they approached, so people shifted focus to identifying ICE vehicles on the roads and staying on them. ICE needed to rely on surprise and ambush tactics, so responders employed noise—whistles and honking—to quickly give warning across distance. ICE officers don’t like to operate when outnumbered and don’t like to be surrounded, so patrollers amass cars and form impromptu traffic jam blockades."

Judge rules immigration officers in Minneapolis can't detain peaceful protesters (January 16) "The ruling prohibits the officers from detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles when there is no reasonable suspicion they are obstructing or interfering with the officers."

It’s The Videos (January 17) "Everyday citizens all over the country are racking up hundreds of millions of views with on-the-ground videos, and seem increasingly willing to film ICE agents on job sites, at traffic stops, and even on their doorsteps—even while being threatened at gunpoint. It’s a scrappy, diffuse content campaign against the Trump media machine, which likes to turn ICE arrests into highly produced hype videos that look as if they were produced by an SEC football program."

Minneapolis church has delivered more than 12,000 boxes of groceries to families in hiding (January 15, via) 

Dispatch from the occupation (January 17, via) "All of this means that the following dystopian scenario plays out in the open dozens of times per day in the Twin Cities: Multiple masked and armed agents in combat gear amass in unmarked cars outside a house or business. A bystander notices and alerts the neighborhood. A dozen or more neighborhood residents appear within minutes to legally observe, legally film the encounter, legally make sure the targeted people know their rights, and legally warn others by blowing whistles and honking car horns."

I’ve Covered Police Abuse for 20 Years. What ICE Is Doing Is Different. (January 21, via) "The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything."

3. Expand your vocabulary: the Dual State (January 19) "But your life goes on normally, until it doesn’t."