Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Twitterlike is a Bad Shape (April 12, via) "A share addition feature (or "quote posts") can poison site culture by giving people a reason to share bad posts for no other reason than just to announce they disagree."

2. Pig kidney transplant fails after patient rejection (April 11) "'For the first time since 2016, I enjoyed time with friends and family without planning around dialysis treatments. Though the outcome is not what anyone wanted, I know a lot was learned from my 130 days with a pig kidney—and that this can help and inspire many others in their journey to overcome kidney disease,' she said." This is really cool! Even though it failed, this is progress.

3. Tennessee’s "Success Sequence" law ignores what really makes kids successful (April 11) Posting this because yeah this is what I always heard, from republican role models when I was growing up, about why we shouldn't push for systemic changes to help minimum wage workers, single moms, etc. Because the way it's SUPPOSED to work [apparently] is you go to college, graduate, get a good job, get married, and then have kids. If there's a news article about a single mom who is struggling to get by in a minimum wage job- well yeah, it's not SUPPOSED to be doable to try to raise kids on a minimum wage income. We don't need to change society, we need to blame people for not following the life plan they're supposed to. If we raised the minimum wage, that would unfairly mess things up for the people who did things the right way. That's what I learned from republicans...

4. What happened to all the clothing donated during the LA wildfires? (April 14) This is really interesting- I'm very curious about how it works when people donate clothes, because I suspect that the reality is very different from whatever magical ideal is in donors' minds. Anyway, the important thing to always remember is, check with the recipients to confirm what kinds of things they want, before you donate- don't just assume that you're doing a good thing by giving them your random stuff.

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Links related to the antichrist. As always, you don't need to read all these if you're too stressed out. Instead, go protest or help immigrants.

1. Trump Is Separating Immigrant Families Again. Here’s What We Can Do About It. (April 11) "The new administration has unleashed a torrent of policies that have caused irreparable harm to people and families seeking safety."

2. Trump attacks on law firms begin to chill pro bono work on causes he doesn't like (April 13) "If the legal profession doesn't push back now, Levi said, the whole idea of equal justice and the justice system is vulnerable."

3. Feds to collect personal info of people exchanging, sending money from U.S.-Mexico border (April 10) "'Providing your social to exchange two hundred dollars is ridiculous,' Guerra said."

So, there are legitimate reasons that governments would want to know who exactly is sending money internationally. But I don't trust this government is doing it for any of those reasons.

4. Think Twice: China Tells Tourists and Students Eyeing the U.S. (April 14) 

5. Trump told us the horrifying reason why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not back in the U.S. (April 15) "Trump said the plan: The Trump administration wants this foreign prison — and, perhaps, others — to hold many people sent from America, including U.S. citizens."

And: SMART-TD Stands With Brother Kilmar Abrego Garcia (April 10)

6. Trump administration freezes more than $2.2 billion after Harvard rejects its demands (April 14) "Earlier in the day, Alan Garber, Harvard's president, said in a letter to faculty and students that the university would not submit to a list of demands made last Friday. Among them are that it eliminate DEI programs, screen international students who are 'supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism' and ensure 'viewpoint diversity' in its hiring." Good. Say no to him. For the universities/ companies/ law firms who cave to his demands, that won't be the end of it- he will continue to demand more things from them. If they're doing a calculation about how they can manage to kinda accept his deal- well, don't, because whatever he says is not the actual deal. If you accept it, it will end up being worse than what he said.

7. Haunted by hopelessness: 12 Zambians share their stories as HIV drugs run out (April 14) "An untold number of people with HIV have simply and suddenly lost access to their medication."

8. Should I stay or go? Immigrants across U.S. consider self-deportation (April 14) "'We're scared. We stay indoors all day,' Rosa, a heavily pregnant Honduran woman in Waukegan, Ill., told NPR back in January."

9. Trump can't revoke legal status of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, judge rules (April 14) "The 'early termination, without any case-by-case justification, of legal status for noncitizens who have complied with DHS programs and entered the country lawfully undermines the rule of law,' wrote Talwani, who sits on the federal district court in Boston." A little bit of good news.

Blogaround

1. The tragedy of the murdered missionaries (June 12) "So when the State Department tells you to stay the F out, maybe THAT is God speaking to you."

This is a blog post written by someone who grew up as a missionary kid. I relate to some of this because I was very influenced by evangelical missions ideology back in the day- it was a huge factor in my decision to move to China. The thing that strikes me, reading this now, is I'm realizing I've always had the assumption that the best way to help poor people in other countries is to go there yourself. And not as some shallow "poverty tourism" thing, but really give up your whole affluent lifestyle and dedicate yourself to living in their culture, submitting yourself to learning a foreign language, truly internalizing the idea that you're not better than anyone else. That would certainly be the biggest sacrifice on the part of the missionary- and therefore I had the unquestioned assumption that it would do the most good. But, wait, actually that's kinda self-centered, isn't it? The idea that "this is the most difficult thing that *I* can do, therefore it must give *them* the most benefit." Maybe that's completely wrong. Maybe giving up your American lifestyle doesn't necessarily help more than, say, staying in the US and raising money for local people there who know what's what better than you do.

Also in her blog post, the whole part about how the US government issued travel warnings telling US citizens NOT to go to Haiti. Reminds me of when the US government issued travel warnings about China, during the zero-covid times, but I stayed here anyway...

2. Kamala Harris Releases First Presidential Campaign Ad (July 26) Oh I like this.

3. China Makes More Films Accessible for Blind People (July 29) "Audio description — often referred to as 'barrier-free movies' in China — is a separate soundtrack that plays simultaneously during a movie, describing the action as it is happening for blind and visually impaired viewers."

4. Trump tells supporters they ‘won’t have to vote’ again if he wins (July 29) What on EARTH. 

5. Brad Pitt Distantly Related to Barack Obama? (July 24) "The president shares an 18th-century Virginia ancestor with the superstar actor-producer. Edwin Hickman, who died in 1769, connects Obama and Pitt as ninth cousins."

Also from Snopes: Las Vegas Sphere Showed 'Blue Screen of Death'? (July 19) I saw this picture on social media and thought it was real- turns out it is fake. So, don't believe everything you see on the internet.

6. OnlySky relaunches with a focus on the future (July 28) 

7. Stephen Nedoroscik COMES THROUGH on pommel horse in U.S. bronze medal effort | Paris Olympics (July 30) Holy crap this is incredible.

8. This post about "Iron Man 2." (July 30) "It was TENSE AS SHIT, and I get the impression that the people making the movie weren't entirely aware of that?"

9. A Halfhearted Critique of Flag Culture (July 31) "It's not just the attention to or investment in flags, but the centrality of flags as a basis of activity, to the point of putting flags first, community second. These priorities become clear once you've seen people autocratically announcing flag designs for demographics that the designer isn't part of or communities that don't even exist yet (or may never exist)—as if declaring 'the flag' on other people's behalf is some kind of friendly supportive behavior rather than something presumptuous, misleading, and rude."