Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. list animals until failure (via) A browser game where you have to write down as many animals as you can think of. I got 200.

2. Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights icon, dies at 84 (February 17) "Jackson, who was at the motel in Memphis, Tennessee, with King when he was assassinated in 1968, did not let up after King’s death. He took his vision for Black liberation even further by founding People United to Save Humanity, or PUSH, in 1971."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. U.K.'s ex-Prince Andrew is released after his arrest over Epstein revelations (February 19) "Late Thursday, the police said they concluded the searches and released the suspect but he was still under investigation."

2. DHS Was Built to Come After People Like Me. Now, They Are After All of Us. (February 11) "After 9/11, fear changed the U.S. That fear was exploited by our government, fostering a culture of complacency and turning Americans against one another in pursuit of “securing the homeland.” As a first-generation Iraqi American, I understand that on a deeply personal level."

3. Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s sweeping tariffs, sparking fierce pushback and vow of new levies (February 21) "The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a stinging loss that sparked a furious attack on the court he helped shape."

4. Why CBS Didn't Broadcast Stephen Colbert's Interview With James Talarico (February 17) "And because my network clearly doesn't want us to talk about this, let's talk about this."

Basically the FCC says if a talk show interviews a political candidate, they have to give equal time to all the other candidates- which is a new rule that, uh, seems very politically motivated. So Colbert was not allowed to broadcast the interview with Talerico on tv, *but* he did put it on his youtube channel.

And here it is, this is what the FCC doesn't want you to watch: Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas  Legislature (February 17) Talerico is a Christian who says Christianity is about actually following the teachings of Jesus: love God and love your neighbor. And an important part of that is fighting back against Christian nationalism.

5. Citing Orwell's '1984,' judge orders Trump administration to restore slavery exhibit it removed in Philadelphia (February 17) "The Philadelphia exhibit, created two decades ago in a partnership between the city and federal officials, included biographical details about each of the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the home, including two who escaped."

6. Massive Dallas-area warehouse will not be used as an ICE detention center, developer says (February 16) Really good to see local people protesting against ICE centers being built.

7. Idaho House Votes, Passes Trans Bathroom Ban In Private Businesses As Bill Rockets Through Legislature (February 18) "The bill, which passed 56-13, would allow individuals to sue private businesses that fail to prevent transgender people from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Existing bathroom bans across the country have been limited to schools, some colleges, or government buildings. This bill goes much further, effectively requiring every restaurant, gas station, and retail store in the state to police their restrooms—or face legal liability."

8. The D.C. District Court strikes back (February 13) "Within a 24-hour period, three judges of the D.C. District Court pushed back against the executive overreach in a way that would be unthinkable in another era. In three totally separate cases where the Trump administration has ignored people’s fundamental constitutional rights to advance its program of cruelty and retaliation, judges said, essentially, “Not on my watch,” in the midst of continuing offenses by the Trump administration against the Constitution and the nation’s laws."

Blogaround

I know I just published a blogaround 2 days ago, but more things keep happening.

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Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Crisis calls among Oklahoma LGBTQ+ youth drop after Ryan Walters quit his job as the state’s schools chief (October 30, via) "Before his exit, nearly two-thirds of Oklahoma callers, 64 percent, identified Walters as a source of distress, according to Rainbow Youth Project."

2. “The Dark Side”: Dick Cheney’s Legacy from Iraq Invasion to U.S. Torture Program (November 4)

3. How megachurches twist the Bible to defend billionaires and wealth inequality (October 21) "'He's not talking about financially poor people, he's talking about spiritually impoverished people,' said the pastor."

Yes, this whole article very much rings true. In my experience in white evangelicalism, the teaching is that it's not *bad* to be a rich person- it would only be bad if you end up putting your trust in your money rather than in God. It's all about your heart, your attitude.

4. AI Isn’t Always Helping Chinese Office Workers Either (November 5) "AI helps generate proposals efficiently, but these things reek of that unmistakable ‘AI smell.’ Finally, I end up reworking them so they read as if a real person had written them."

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Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

1. White House releases list of donors for Trump’s multi-million-dollar ballroom (October 23) Here's the list- companies and private donors. They all should be ashamed of themselves. Boycott them if you can.

• Altria Group, Inc.
• Amazon
• Apple
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• Caterpillar, Inc.
• Coinbase
• Comcast Corporation
• J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul
• Hard Rock International
• Google
• HP Inc.
• Lockheed Martin
• Meta Platforms
• Micron Technology
• Microsoft
• NextEra Energy, Inc.
• Palantir Technologies Inc.
• Ripple
• Reynolds American
• T-Mobile
• Tether America
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Adelson Family Foundation
• Stefan E. Brodie
• Betty Wold Johnson Foundation
• Charles and Marissa Cascarilla
• Edward and Shari Glazer
• Harold Hamm
• Benjamin Leon Jr.
• The Lutnick Family
• The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation
• Stephen A. Schwarzman
• Konstantin Sokolov
• Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher
• Paolo Tiramani
• Cameron Winklevoss
• Tyler Winklevoss

2. Could a Third Term Happen? (November 3) "The main reason to take it somewhat seriously is this: If Trump floated an idea like this and nobody pushed back, before long he’d be doing it."

3. No One Is Safe (November 3) "Seconds after the crash, agents abruptly stopped their vehicle and exited with weapons in hand pointing at Figueroa, a U.S citizen. Agents then forcibly opened her door and pulled her out of the vehicle by her legs without identifying themselves, presenting a warrant or informing her that she was under arrest. As bystanders yelled, “You hit her! We have it on video!” agents ignored the crowd and forced Figueroa into a red minivan and drove away."

4. USDA tells grocery stores: No special discounts for SNAP recipients (November 3) "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) emailed grocery stores prohibiting them from offering discounts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients amid the government shutdown." 

I want to be like "Don't these people claim to be Christians? Aren't they worried about how they're gonna explain this to Jesus when he separates the sheep from the goats?" but, ah, it would be very naive to think that when these MAGAs talk about Christianity, it has any relation at all to the teachings and character of Jesus. Obviously we should all realize by now that it doesn't.

5. Some election results:

Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race, in a historic victory for progressives (November 5)

California voters OK new congressional lines, boosting Democrats ahead of midterms (November 4)

AP Race Call: Colorado voters OK income tax increase to fund free meals for public school students (November 5)

"A Stunning Rebuke Of Anti-Trans Politics"—Dems Win Elections Nationwide Despite Anti-Trans Ads (November 5) "For all the centrist consultants urging Democrats to “moderate” or sacrifice transgender people for political gain, the results suggest the opposite: conviction, not capitulation, is what wins."

Democrats didn’t just rebound. They dominated. (November 5)

6. More American Nazis in the news (November 3) "On Thursday night, the president of the Heritage Foundation — the MAGA right’s leading think tank — welcomed an open Nazi into his political coalition."

7. They’ve Won in Court, But ICE Is Still Detaining and Trying to Deport Them (September 22) "Lawyers and advocates nationwide say the practice of keeping people in detention after they win in court has become much more entrenched in recent months. 'ICE officers are no longer using their discretion, but just applying this blanket policy of, ‘We’re just not going to release you at all unless, basically, a court tells us that we have to,’' Benz says."

Blogaround

An adorable fluffy white kitten stares at you. Image source.

1. Praying Through The Saints (posted July 1) "For a long time I thought this was true; that Catholics prayed to the saints, but it’s not true."

2. Conservatives Suddenly Discover a Right to Privacy (posted July 1) "For more than 50 years now, the right wing has raged against the idea that there is any such thing as a right to privacy in the Constitution."

3. A note on The Toast (posted July 1) Hillary Clinton wrote a post for The Toast. Cool!

4. Who Blames the Victim? (posted June 24) "Proponents of individualizing values tend to see a dyad of victim and perpetrator (a victim is hurt, a perpetrator does the hurting). Proponents of binding values, however, may see behaviors as immoral even when there is no obvious victim — for example, the “impure” act of premarital sex or the “disloyal” act of flag burning — and may even feel that doing the right thing sometimes requires hurting others (as with honor killings, to pick an extreme example)."

5. This tweet:

Calvinism and Prosperity Gospel are the pessimistic and optimistic sides of the same theological coin.

— Samantha Field (@samanthapfield) 2016年6月20日

6. The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Fetal Imaginings (posted June 30) "But we’re all clear that people don’t just go out and have third trimester abortions, right?"

7. This is why we have women-only spaces, and why I don't want to hear your complaints (posted May 24) "Despite being force-fed the narrative of danger that, for example, warns us against speaking to strange men lest we somehow give them the 'wrong impression', women are also demonised whenever we express concern or caution about being alone with men we don't know. To do so is to express the most violent of misandries against the innocent, unassuming gentlemen who would never, not in a million years, how dare you even suggest it you vile she-beast, ever do anything to harm a woman."

8. Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies at 87 (posted July 2)

9. Why Everyone In Aladdin Is Awful - Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder (posted June 27) "When Aladdin shows up at the palace in disguise, unannounced, uninvited, from a country that no one has ever heard of, the sultan, unlike just about any other dad on the planet, opens his home in the hopes that this stranger will hook up with his daughter."

10. After Settlement, Gay Users Will Finally Be Able to Use ChristianMingle.com (posted July 2)

11. Do Progressives Hate American History? (posted July 4) "Now yes, I’d known about slavery, and I’d known it was evil, but I hadn’t realized how deeply it was defended, or how little the Union soldiers and Northern whites I’d been taught to revere as liberators and heroes actually cared about slaves’ wellbeing. I hadn’t realized that our country was literally built on slavery, that the prosperity I’d been taught to admire in our early nation came fundamentally at the price of slaves’ sweat and tears."

12. WATCH: Sir Ian McKellen delivers an inspiring message to ShanghaiPRIDE (posted June 20) Hooray!

13. Everything Wrong With Fox’s ‘X-Men’ Billboard And The Media’s Response To It (posted June 6) "Those unfamiliar with the comics (read: most viewers driving or walking by the posters) didn’t see the culmination of a hard-fought battle between formidable Marvel mutants. They’d be unlikely to wonder if Mystique might give Apocalypse a run for his money before this image, or if she kicks his ass in some subsequent scene. Instead, they just saw a hulking, powerful male figure easily dominating a smaller, strangled female figure—with the reinforcing tagline, “Only the strong will survive.” And in a country where every day three or more women are murdered by their husbands and boyfriends, such copy strongly implies that she’s a goner."

14. 105 Trans Women On American TV: A History and Analysis (posted April 28)

15. The worst ISIS attack in days is the one the world probably cares least about (posted July 4) "For years now, we have become almost numb to the violence in Baghdad: Deadly car bombings there conjure up no hashtags, no Facebook profile pictures with the Iraqi flag, and no Western newspaper front pages of the victims' names and life stories, and they attract only muted global sympathy."

16. Video Shows Grisly Aftermath of Fatal Shooting of Black Man in Minnesota (posted July 7) Oh my god. #BlackLivesMatter