Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Famous Science YouTuber Admits He Has Unhealthy Relationship With AI After Facing Backlash Over Recent Video (July 31, via) "Longtime YouTuber and science content creator Hank Green has announced that his main channel will likely be “paused” as he deals with his admitted overreliance on ChatGPT and other AI tools after some fans claimed a recent video included him reading AI-generated language."

2. The Underlying Misogyny of Grand Romantic Gestures (July 27, 47-minute video) "If you meet your best friend's fiance and all you can think is, 'oh man, she's so hot, let me film intense close-ups of her, then go home and edit them into a weird montage that I will keep in a VHS tape to fantasize about in my house', you're just weird."

Another good line from the video: "It is only by doing the little things, the daily, mundane work, that you can build to a place where your relationship is healthy enough to also accommodate fun gestures and surprises."

And: "No matter how much women say, stop, leave me alone, I don't want to be with you, we'll never be together, the grand romantic gesture argues that it's all just all just pretense. It's this fake defense that women use, almost as a filter to weed out the guys who aren't romantic enough to keep pursuing them."

3. How China Delivers a 14-Yuan Bouquet Over 2,000 Kilometers (August 3) "On China’s major e-commerce platforms, a bouquet of fresh-cut roses from the southwestern Yunnan province sells for just 14 yuan ($2), with free delivery to most parts of the country."

Also from Sixth Tone: Check in, Log on, Stay for Months: Life at China’s 9-Cent Internet Café (August 5)

4.  Is Captain Pike's Tragic Fate Actually a Happy Ending? (July 22, 31-minute video) An analysis of Captain Pike's disability in "Star Trek": how it is viewed in different ways in different "Star Trek" series (the 1960's vs now), and the parallels between Captain Pike and the lives of disabled people in the real world.

5. Works of culture from age to age (July 28) "But the other thing Card does here also seems utterly alien to contemporary MAGA worship and MAGA religion: He identifies God through the eyes of Hagar, the abused and discarded concubine, the refugee."

6. The Pastor No One Can Correct (July 11) Posting this because it's related to the question of whether or not children can/should take communion in church, which we were talking about when we read "The Kingdom of Children." Apparently Doug Wilson said "we commune children", and first of all, I have never heard "commune" used as a verb meaning "give communion to", and second, this is definitely a different thing than what "The Kingdom of Children" was talking about. (If you don't know who Doug Wilson is- he's a pastor who is so extremely racist and sexist, like, I didn't even know there were people who were that racist and sexist.)

I guess you can imagine a spectrum going from "we make infants/children/everyone eat communion, whether they want to or not" (is this Wilson's position?) to "we let everyone (children and adults) take communion if they choose to" to "we have an official vetting process to make sure you're a real Christian before you can take communion, and children cannot pass this vetting process." [Okay maybe this isn't a one-dimensional spectrum, maybe it's several dimensions.] What is the role of choice, and what is the role of "understanding" (understanding what communion means, understanding what it means to be a Christian, understanding the meaning of Jesus' death)? 

"The Kingdom of Children" talks about communion as "the family meal"- like it's about being included as part of the community, rather than about your own individual feelings/understanding about Jesus- to me, this sounds like if you're at church, you take communion, because that's what everyone's doing. It would be weird if you're having a meal, and some people are eating and some people are just sitting there not eating while it happens around them- but that always happens at church during communion. It's totally fine if some people choose not to do it while everyone else does, maybe because they're not Christians, or for any other reason. It's not weird. I *don't* think children should have communion just because "oh, it's time for us all to have communion now"; I think there should be some "understanding" of what it is. I don't think "The Kingdom of Children" addressed that- it was mainly talking about churches which exclude children who *want* to take communion. The main point of "The Kingdom of Children" was that children should be able to make their own choices about religion.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Oh turns out I haven't been following the news this week so I don't have any links

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1.  Toy Story 5 | Official Trailer | In Theaters June 19 (February 20) Part of me is like "why are they making another Toy Story movie" but also part of me is like "I'm going to watch it."

2. How the devil was disguised in the SBC and Paul Pressler's Conservative Resurgence (May 6, via) "By 1998, I had been so convinced of the rightness of the religious right and the conservative movement that when news of the Clinton-Lewinsky abuse case broke, I thought the leaders who spoke against Clinton and sought his impeachment actually cared about the immorality of it all." This is so real.

Add this to the "it was all fake" pile of evidence. All that talk about submitting your life to Jesus, every part of your life, every decision, even your thoughts, sitting in prayer and listening to God, willing to do whatever God wanted, no matter the cost, killing your sinful and selfish nature- and meanwhile, the leaders at the top are lying, sexually abusing people, and chasing political power.

Maybe this is the case any time you have religious people who totally believe "I have to do whatever God says, no matter how hard it is"- we are extremely vulnerable to any leader who comes along and claims "this is what God wants." Especially when they frame it as "I'm just simply telling you what the bible says- if you question or disagree with me, you're disagreeing with God" which I've heard so many times.

What to do about this? I guess if you're a religious person who believes "I have to do whatever God says, no matter how hard it is," you need to maintain some amount of independence, like "I'm going to use my own brain and only believe 'this is what God says' if there is a good reason *that makes sense to me*." You run the risk that you might refuse to obey something that turned out to be a valid command from God, but I think it's better to err on that side, rather than be manipulated by leaders who can claim anything is "what God said" and our feeble human minds aren't supposed to understand the reasons and that's why faith is so important.

3.  How terrible is this family? Family therapist takes on THE PARENT TRAP (May 22, 28-minute video) Yessss, I watched "The Parent Trap" on Disney channel so many times back in the day. 

"There's emotional realism in this film, which the actors kind of like, concoct out of thin air. ... there's no emotional realism in this premise. And everyone's just kind of like, well, your dad and I had a fight, so we got divorced, and we each took a kid, and then they're never gonna see each other. And I as a parent am not gonna see my other child. Ever."

"And apparently there are many adults in both of these adults' lives who know this and are cool with it."

4. Ancestral Genomes (May 29) From xkcd.

5. A cancer vaccine made just for you. mRNA is back and it's fighting melanoma (June 1) This is great news! Sounds like it's still being tested, but hopefully soon it will be widely available.

6. Enhanced Games claim ‘we changed the world’ but only one record broken and three clean athletes win (May 25) "While the vast majority of the 42 competing sprinters, swimmers and weightlifters were taking banned substances such as testosterone, EPO and anabolic steroids, three athletes who were competing clean also won."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Donald Trump’s Horribly Broken Propaganda Film (May 31, 31-minute video) "It's rare to see a bit of art that literally should not exist, that is, in and of itself, morally wrong." Oh good, Big Joel watched "Melania" so the rest of us don't have to.

2. Justice Department says it will abide by court order pausing its 'anti-weaponization' fund (June 1) "A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia last week temporarily blocked the creation of the anti-weaponization fund after a lawsuit from Democracy Forward and others."

3. One by one, U.S. civil rights agency dismantles tools to fight discrimination (June 1) "Protecting U.S. workers from unlawful discrimination — already a hard task — could become significantly harder if the government no longer has that data within arm's reach, Gilbride says."

4. Federal judge ends Kennedy Center name change, bars two-year closure plans for now (May 30) "'Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,' Cooper, an Obama appointee, wrote of the federal law establishing the Kennedy Center in his 94-page opinion."

5. Immigrant detainees sue over 'horrific' conditions at Texas ICE facility (May 30) "'No human being should ever have to go through this,' Angye said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing the detainees. 'I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America.'"

6. CA Gov Candidate Tom Steyer Calls Out Dems Capitulating On Trans People: "I'm Totally In Favor Of Trans Athletes" (May 28) "Steyer responded with a full-throated defense of transgender youth—and, specifically, of transgender athletes."

Also from Erin in the Morning: New York State Budget Released: $0 For Transgender Care Access (May 29) "'As the Trump administration continues to pose an existential threat to the transgender community, we are profoundly disappointed that the FY2027 New York State budget invests zero state dollars to support access to the health care many transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and intersex people rely on to live in their bodies with dignity and health -- a complete failure to meet the moment,' said Allie Bohm, NYCLU senior policy counsel about the lack of passage."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Film review: Cover-Up (2025) (December 29) [content note: descriptions of genocide] "It is must-see viewing for anyone who wishes to know more about the murder, war crimes, rape, torture, and other abuses committed by the US government and its military, many of which were revealed because of the dogged work of Hersh."

2. From xkcd: Anyone Else Here and High Altitude Cooking Instructions

3. The biggest downside of marrying someone from another country... (December 29, 28-minute video) This vlogger is a US citizen married to a Chinese man, and she is trying to help him get a US tourist visa so he can come visit her family. Spoilers, he doesn't get it. The interview process for a US tourist visa is about proving that you really do just want to take a short trip there, and you're not planning to overstay your visa and be an illegal immigrant- and the evidence they want to see is that you have a well-established life in your own country- being married to a US citizen is a strike against him, actually. Lots of couples are in this situation, where the foreign spouse comes from a poor background, such that it's almost impossible to convince the US visa interviewer that you genuinely like to live in your own country and you're not going to decide that being an illegal immigrant would be a step up.

This is the kind of thing that radicalized me. Seriously, there are Americans who are not allowed by the US government to bring their spouse home on a trip to meet their family- not because they've done anything wrong, but because the US judges the foreign spouse as not having sure enough ties to their home country. 

My husband and I are lucky that this didn't happen to him. He got a US tourist visa before we got married, and now has a good track record of going there for a vacation and then leaving, they like to see that.

4. Natasha Romanoff: My Unlikely Ace Icon (January 2) "Nat is perennially single and, unfortunately, incapable of having children of her own. But she has a good relationship with Clint and Laura, and the way their daughter greets her suggests that she has also provided at least some childcare. Though we don’t get a lot of details on the relationship, it seems that Nat is valued by the Bartons and perhaps even loved."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. In Parents' Own Words: Documenting the Stories of Separated Families in Honduras (December 18) "One mother, who had been deported without being given the opportunity to bring her two month-old child, a US citizen, back with her, could talk of little more than her frantic desperation to have her newborn baby back."

2. Trump calls Somali immigrants ‘garbage’ as US reportedly targets Minnesota community (December 2) I guess I didn't post anything about this when it happened a few weeks ago, because he always says all manner of horrible racist bigoted things, I can't possibly pay attention to all of them.

But, this one was pretty bad. Calling a whole group of people "garbage."

And part of me wants to be like "how does he get away with calling himself Christian- the bible says all people are made in the image of God- to call people 'garbage' goes against Christian teaching" but like, come on, that ship has sailed, the MAGAs are no longer even trying to pretend that being Christian has anything to do with, like, following the bible or the teachings of Jesus. Everybody knows that's not what it means.

3. Capitol riot 'does not happen' without Trump, Jack Smith told Congress (December 31) "Accounts from Republicans willing to stand up against the falsehood that the election had been stolen 'even though it could mean trouble for them' created what Smith described as the 'most powerful' evidence against Trump."

‘This is not a peaceful protest!’: A visual archive of Jan. 6, 2021, through the lenses of those who were there. (January 4)

4. The Artists Are Not Obeying In Advance (January 1) "The administration is threatening to sue these artists for millions, and no doubt they will try to find ways to intimidate and defund any organizations with whom they might be affiliated. But that won’t stop them. Artists, musicians, writers, film makers and performers of all kinds are rebelling, one of the most profound forms of resistance to a repressive regime."

5. 'We are going to run the country,' Trump says after strike on Venezuela (January 3)

Photos: Aftermath of strikes in Venezuela (January 3)

The Dems (January 3) "Too many people on social media are saying that the Democrats are all falling in line with Trump’s Venezuelan misadventure. That’s not true."

Miami mayor calls for Trump to 'immediately' reinstate TPS for Venezuelans (January 4) "'The instability unfolding in Venezuela today makes it even clearer that the country remains unsafe for people to return. No one should be forced back into chaos and uncertainty,' Higgins wrote in a statement. 'They have built lives here, contributed to our community, and deserve the security to remain while their homeland regains stability. This is not just a matter of policy — it is a matter of basic human dignity and safety.'"

6. DHS pauses immigration applications for an additional 20 countries (January 2) "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in a memo released Thursday, said it would pause the review of all pending applications for visas, green cards, citizenship or asylum from immigrants from the additional countries."

Blogaround

The last blog post of the year~ Happy new year everyone!

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. My favorite Christmas song: Casting Crowns - I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day Live 

2. The NIMBY Christmas cinematic universe (December 23) "Particularly frustrating is the argument that economic growth, development, and newcomers — the very things that ailing small towns desperately need — are actually the root of their problems."

3. Firewood Banks Aren’t Inspiring. They’re a Sign of Collapse. (December 9, via) "You don’t start a wood bank in a country with functioning institutions. You start one when heating assistance programs can’t keep up, when the grid flickers every time the wind shifts, when propane and heating oil costs swing so hard that families can’t budget more than a week out. You start a wood bank when seniors stop turning on their heat because they’re scared of the bill. You also start one when the country pretends energy insecurity doesn’t exist because acknowledging it would mean admitting that entire regions were left behind on purpose."

4. Collections: Coinage and the Tyranny of Fantasy ‘Gold’ (January 3, 2025, via) "So a denarius or a drachma isn’t a unit so big that no normal person would ever use it, but it is a big enough unit that one is hardly going to use it casually"

5. Israel says it will bar aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, from Gaza (December 30)

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Is It Too Late? (December 9, via) "The full-on hijacking of the 14th Amendment has not been challenged with commensurate concerted outrage and political clarity. That is because far too many white Americans associate the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of birthright citizenship and equality, as provisions that only protect Black people, migrants, Latino people, and other marginalized groups, rather than as core democracy infrastructure of our Constitution."

2. What We Can Learn from the Right’s Attack On “Toxic Empathy” (December 11, via) "But by trying to get inside Chauvin’s head and heart, by insisting that he should be the focal point of identification, Stuckey can move away from what actually happened, and can instead present herself as the truly thoughtful and empathetic voice, feeling along with the right, white, and supposedly Godly person."

3. The return of the r-word (December 23) "But it turns out that banishing the slur from public discourse was, in fact, important. Because now it’s back and it turns out that it does matter when subtext becomes actual text, when terrible people enable open hatred and bigotry, encouraging others to emulate them, degrading us all."

4. Conservatives Want the Antebellum Constitution Back (December 21) "What this means in practice is that if you are not white, you cannot go certain places without the risk of being kidnapped by federal agents. That is not “common sense”; it is the nullification of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal rights under the law."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Reading Halloween (1978) Through the Lens of Labor (October 30, via) "Parents, historically, have been the most recurring threat to babysitters in their capacity to exploit and prey on them, and yet with Michael on set, the threat of the predatory employer-parent gets completely displaced."

2. Scientists thought this fossil was a teen T. rex. Turns out it's a new tyrannosaur (October 30) 

3. Hundreds killed in Darfur hospital massacre, 'hero' doctors abducted (October 30)

4. Israel still blocking most Gaza aid as military carries out more attacks (November 1, via) "This is an average of 145 aid trucks per day, or just 24 percent of the 600 trucks that are meant to be entering Gaza daily as part of the deal, it added."

5. Too many rats? Birth control is one city's answer (November 1) "For all these reasons, Somerville is trying something else — an anti-fertility chemical that targets the mature eggs in female rats."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. America's immigration crackdown is disrupting the global remittance market (October 28) "What leads Yang to argue this is that immigrants in the United States send a jaw-dropping amount of money back home to their families. These remittances, as they're known, have dwarfed the size of official foreign aid that the U.S. spends on things like economic development, health, and humanitarian assistance."

2. America’s Assault On Real History Comes For The Staff Of The Charles Lindbergh House And Museum (September 3, via) "As of the end of August, it’s all gone."

3. Trump administration sets lowest-ever cap on refugee admissions to U.S. (October 30) "'It is egregious to exclude refugees who completed years of rigorous security checks and are currently stuck in dangerous and precarious situations,' said Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project. He said that the number of those with confirmed travel plans to the U.S. is greater than the new refugee cap."

4. Trump Admin Attempts To Ban Trans Youth Care Nationwide With New Federal Rules (October 30) "Now the administration is escalating with a blitz of three new rules that could effectively end most transgender youth care nationwide if enacted—pressuring many medical institutions to drop trans patients from receiving the care they need out of fear of federal reprisal, and punishing those who do not comply."

5.  The Myth of the Woke Right: A Response to the New York Times (October 24) 36-minute video from Big Joel about how that felon never actually understood "free speech" to mean "free speech"; how the New York Times wrote an article about "The Woke Right" but that's not really a thing, and the people who use the term use it to mean all sorts of different things; and the difference between cancel culture and government censorship.

6. Food Stamps are Good, Actually (Here Comes the Science) (October 30) "In the meanwhile, I urge you all to reach out to your local community to help out, or to find help if you need it."

And: Trump administration faces Monday deadline on use of contingency funds for SNAP (November 3) "The situation leaves millions with uncertainty about how they will feed themselves. Benefits will be delayed in November regardless of the outcome of the court cases because many beneficiaries have their cards recharged early in the month and the process of loading cards can take a week or more in many states."

7. US carries out new strike in Caribbean, killing 3 alleged drug smugglers (November 2) "The U.S. military has now killed at least 64 people in the strikes."

8. They were promised a lifeline to 'graduate' from poverty. Then it was taken away (November 2) "But just as you are about to receive that support, it gets canceled."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Air Bud Pt. II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Web Exclusive) (October 20, 20-minute video) I love when people take the details of a fictional universe way too seriously.

2. From definitions to motivations (October 21) "Educators must be on guard against the shitty imaginations of skeptical audiences."

3. An explainer about kiwi farms. (October 21) "Kiwi farms has always existed as a community designed to foster, celebrate and encourage online harassment of vulnerable people."

4. Iceland reports the presence of mosquitoes for the first time, as climate warms (October 22) [content note: article has a close-up photo of a mosquito]

5. Reversing peanut advice prevented tens of thousands of allergy cases, researchers say (October 21) I'm kinda surprised to read this- I have little kids and so I've been through the whole process of how to introduce new foods to a baby, and the concerns about allergens, and the impression I got was basically "Don't give foods that are possible allergens to your baby until they are 1 year old! Oh, but wait, there's this other scientific evidence that giving potential allergens to the baby earlier can actually prevent allergies, and that also makes a certain kind of sense. Hmm, both sides have good points here, hard to say which one is right." But this article is saying yeah that standard advice has changed, now we are telling parents they should introduce potential allergens to their babies earlier, and this is a real thing with scientific evidence to back it up, and wow look how many allergies it has prevented. I'm really surprised to hear that "U.S. health guidance changed in 2015 and 2017"- that was before my kids were born, but when I was doing this for my kids, I very much did not get the impression that this advice was well-supported by evidence. I have always seen it talked about in parenting social media groups like "well, there's a certain logic to the idea that introducing these foods earlier can avoid allergies, but who's to say?" 

Could be that different countries have different standard advice? The groups I'm in are moms from all different countries, currently living in China. Or it could be that parents are overly-cautious, and view delaying introducing these foods as the "safer" move- even though that's not what the research says- but I can understand how intuitively it "feels" safer.

6. ‘Huge Lesson’: A Beijing Farmer Learns to Live in Climate Extremes (October 22) "It was 4 a.m. on July 28, when record-breaking downpours struck the mountains in Miyun District, northern Beijing, part of a storm system that swamped valleys overnight. By dawn, the flood had erased his 30-hectare farm."

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Links related to the antichrist:

A lot of bad stuff going on... don't get discouraged by all of it; instead, find ways to take action. Protest, donate money, connect with people near you to see how you can help.

1. Trump’s college compact is a trap (October 17) "The only reasonable response for now is for colleges to show solidarity and refuse."

2. We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. (October 16) "'If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,' Kavanaugh wrote, 'they promptly let the individual go.' But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced."

3. Millions Show Up AGAIN To Tell Trump They Hate Him (October 20) Photos and videos from No Kings protests across the US. [content note: one of the photos shows a giant penis costume]

4. Trump posts AI video showing him dumping on No Kings protesters (October 20) "President Donald Trump on Saturday posted an AI-generated video depicting him in a fighter jet dropping what appears to be feces on U.S. protesters." What on earth.

5. Why the State Department handed U.S. informants over to El Salvador (October 21) "So a core part of an informant relationship is that the United States says, you know, if you give us some information, we're not going to turn around and send you to the very government that you are giving us information about. That just doesn't happen."

6. White House begins demolishing part of East Wing for Trump ballroom (October 21, via) 

7. Legal experts question Rep. Goldman’s call for NYPD to arrest ICE agents if they act unlawfully (October 21) "'It is abundantly clear that the Trump administration is unwilling to police its own officers or hold them accountable for gross misconduct,' the letter states. 'Accordingly, NYPD — pursuant to the department’s own mission, values and oath of office — has an obligation to intervene and take appropriate action, including arrest, when federal immigration officers engage in conduct that is unlawful under state law and beyond the scope of their federal enforcement authority.'"

Also from Gothamist: Federal judge in NYC rules ICE can keep detaining people at immigration court — for now (September 13)

8. Arizona Attorney General’s Office confirms lawsuit against House Speaker Johnson (October 21) "Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva has still not been sworn in four weeks after her win. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is suing House Speaker Mike Johnson, citing 'taxation without representation.'"

9. Home missions (October 21) "For 21st-century white evangelicals, Hudson Taylor and Lottie Moon are too 'woke.'"

Also from the Slacktivist: Get angry. Stay angry. Do better. (October 22) "That anger is the thing missing from all of the recent stories of more than merely 'problematic youthful indiscretions.' These stories involve plenty of defensiveness and dismissal and diminishment, but no self-reproach. No anger."

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.

Blogaround

Hi all, I'm on vacation, but here are some links

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Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Does X cause Y? An in-depth evidence review (2021) "First, the good news: there are hundreds of studies on whether X causes Y. The bad news? We need to throw most of them out."

2. John MacArthur, dead fundamentalist (July 22)

3. OZZY OSBOURNE - "Crazy Train" (Official Video) I seem to remember I used to play this song in Guitar Hero. (Posting this because, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath frontman and icon of British heavy metal, dies aged 76 (July 22))

4. The NSFW game purge (July 24) "If a conservative group can apply pressure to remove certain NSFW games, what’s to stop them from removing, say, LGBT content? I am here to tell you that it has already happened."

Also from Siggy: Journal Club: Demography of Asexuality and Aromanticism (July 24) "We’re happy to see that this article is far more willing than most scholarly articles to cite gray literature, including blog posts, tumblr posts, livestreams, and YouTube videos."

5. His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza (July 27)

6. Get ready, Brazil. The 'good mosquitoes' are coming (July 26) "Remarkably, this bacteria and the virus that causes dengue are unable to coexist inside the mosquito that transmits this disease."

7. Freakier Friday | Official Trailer | In Theaters August 8 (June 7) !!!! A "Freaky Friday" sequel that has Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan again! Very excited about this!

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. The Gloves Are Off | "I Absolutely Love That Colbert Got Fired" | Trump & Epstein's Wonderful Secret (July 22) 

And from npr: This was the week that comedy pushed back (July 27) 

2. From Joy To Justice (July 22) "Before I dive in, a special thanks to all of the lawyers, journalists, activists, Congress members and ordinary citizens who did not let this story go and never relented, applying constant pressure upon our government to undo its original illegal renditions. Whatever post-hoc reason the government gives today for its actions, we all know that the 252 men sent to CECOT would still be there were it not for the hard work of so many."

And from npr: 'Hell on Earth': Venezuelans deported to El Salvador mega-prison tell of brutal abuse (July 27)

And: Ex-marine convicted of killing three people released to US in prisoner swap (July 23) What! So is he just free in the US or what? I haven't found any reporting on whether they're just letting him go free or what's going on.

3. We Need to Talk About Pedocon Theory (July 22) I had some opinions about this article, maybe I will try to blog about it if I have time. I want to say, in Christian "sexual purity" ideology, I have *definitely* come across the idea that the ideal case would be girls who are around 15 years old, right at the point where they've started having their period and are therefore able to get pregnant, getting married to adult men who are well-established financially. It's a pretty fringe idea, and I haven't met anyone in real life who was seriously advocating this, but I have seen the idea floated and it's totally consistent with the logic of purity culture, which says that the MOST IMPORTANT THING about sex and marriage is that you need to not have sex outside of marriage (oh and also, the husband has to be the leader). Other concerns, like actually treating each other right, are nice to have, but the main thing is DON'T HAVE SEX till that ring is on your finger.

(See my posts All of the LOLs for this Sermon on "Marrying Young" and Why Marriage as a Private Contract is a Bad Idea and Roy Moore Dating Teenage Girls "For Their Purity" is 100% Logical in Purity Land)

I never thought of that as pedophilia, but wow, it totally is.

4. US-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France, sources say (July 25) "One of the sources with knowledge of the issue said that the Trump administration was acting in accordance with the Mexico City policy, an anti-abortion pact in which Trump reinstated U.S. participation in January. The pact forbids the U.S. government from contributing to or working with organisations providing funding or supplies that offer access to abortions."

5. Fearing coverage could change, some parents rush to vaccinate their kids (July 25) How will I explain RFK to my children

6. PEPFAR escaped the rescission ax. But where does it stand? (July 26) "Since its founding, PEPFAR has put more than $120 billion into combatting the virus in more than 50 countries. The result of all that money and effort, it says, is clear, citing accomplishments that are widely accepted: 26 million lives saved, a plummeting of HIV infection rates and a rebounding of life expectancy, especially in Africa."

7. Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients’ personal data, including addresses, to ICE (July 28) "Many people sign up for emergency Medicaid in their most desperate moments, said Hannah Katch, a previous adviser at CMS during the Biden administration. 'It’s unthinkable that CMS would violate the trust of Medicaid enrollees in this way,' Katch said."

I can't stop thinking about Monsters University

Dean Hardscrabble in the door lab in "Monsters University." Image source.

[content note: spoilers for the 2013 Pixar movie "Monsters University"]

"Monsters University" is a prequel to "Monsters, Inc." It follows Mike Wazowski's time as a student at Monsters University, studying to be a scarer. He has big dreams and confidence, but other monsters are always telling him he can never really be a scarer, because he's not that scary.

In the universe of these movies, doors in the human world can be accessed from the monster world- in the monster world, a replica of the door is built, and it is attached to a docking station that powers it. Once it is powered, opening the door- from either the human side or the monster side- will allow you to walk right through from one world into the other. Typically these doors are closet doors in children's bedrooms. Monsters go into kids' rooms to scare them and harvest their screams, which create electricity for the monster world.

The scene I want to talk about is the big climax of the movie, when Mike gets discouraged and runs away, going through a door into the human world in order to prove that he *is* scary enough. But this door leads to a cabin at a camp, and Mike is in a room full of children- which he was not expecting. They laugh at him because he is not scary.

Another monster, Sully, comes through this door later, to find Mike. But then, the monsters on the monster world side of the door turn off the power from the docking station- this way, the door will no longer allow anyone to cross between the human and monster worlds. Mike and Sully are stranded in the human world. And what's worse, now a group of human police officers are coming to investigate what is going on in the cabin.

Mike and Sully come up with a plan to do spooky things in the dark cabin when the group of police is in there- making strange sounds, scratching the walls, etc- building up the tension but not letting the people see them yet, until finally Sully jumps up and roars at them, and they all scream and this powers the door, and Mike and Sully are able to get back to the monster world.

And so I can't stop thinking about this.

Wait, stop the presses, so "Monsters University" shows us that it's possible to power a door between the human and monster worlds, from the human side???? !!!!!! This is huge! This means it's theoretically possible for terrified humans to open doors into the monster world, without any monsters even being involved or aware of it at all.

Imagine human who's terrified because they're in life-threatening danger. They're being chased by a murderer, they're on a sinking ship with no way to escape, etc etc. And then- okay I guess they have to scream for this to work- so they scream and open a door and run through it, and suddenly they're in the monster world. Oh my goodness, that would be so fascinating! Suddenly the thing they were scared of is far away, they're not in danger any more, but they're lost in this really weird place. 

Maybe they're thinking, wait, did I die and this is heaven? (Or hell?????)

How long would it take for them to discover the existence of monsters? How would they get back to the human world? And what would it be like to cope with the trauma of the terrifying experience they just escaped, while also trying to navigate this bizarre new world?

Has anyone written a fanfic about this? I need it!

This is such a huge, significant change to the "Monsters, Inc" worldbuilding. The opening of the doors is *not* entirely controlled on the monster side. !!! I feel like this has incredibly significant implications, which the monsters really should be concerned about, seeing as how they're actually terrified of people, and they believe that being touched by a human child is deadly for a monster. Isn't it, like, a problem that there could be any number of terrified humans accidentally bumbling their way into the monster world?

Now let's address some possible objections against what I'm saying here:

Objection 1: It's not like *any* human door can open into the monster world. There has to be a duplicate door created by the monsters, in the monster world, along with the technology which connects them. Most doors in the human world are *not* connected in this way. So no, you're not going to get situations where humans are opening a monster-connected door without realizing it.

Okay, yeah, it's not just *any* door that would work. But, apparently most closet doors in children's bedrooms are connected to the monster world in this way. It's extremely plausible to imagine a situation in the human world where someone runs to hide in a bedroom closet- home break-in, domestic violence, tornado warning, or any number of other terrifying situations.

So yeah, if you say "this wouldn't happen because most human-world doors aren't set up to connect to the monster world"- well, still, some of them are, and it could totally happen with those ones.

Objection 2: It's not that fear *in general* or screams *in general* power the doors. It has to be, specifically, fear in a situation which involves a monster. It has to be a scream of a person who sees a monster. So no, you couldn't have people scared of something completely unrelated to monsters, and accidentally opening doors into the monster world as a result.

Hmm, maybe there's something to this objection. In "Monsters, Inc" and "Monsters University", we see plenty of scenes of people screaming and this energy being collected and used by monsters- but the people are not really in any actual danger. Monsters never ever touch people, because monsters genuinely believe that it is deadly for a monster to do so.

The whole "monster in the closet" thing is not so much about actual danger but a normal phase that children go through, trying to make sense of their emotions about what they don't know and can't control about the world. And there is a scene in "Monsters, Inc" where a monster says that a child is no longer scared of him- children naturally grow out of this phase- and therefore that child's door is no longer useful for the monsters.

So maybe it's not exactly *fear* that is useful for power in the monster world. Maybe it's that specific kind of feeling, it's not fear exactly, it's the sort of thing where you can look back at it later and laugh at yourself because it's obvious there was no actual danger. The feeling that makes people enjoy horror movies and roller coasters. The tension that builds and then releases.

Maybe a door into the monster world *can't* help a human escape an actual life-threatening situation, because it isn't powered by that kind of fear.

But also, in the "Monsters University" scene with the police in the cabin, they genuinely were scared, right? They weren't just having fun and/or working through normal childhood emotions. So maybe this distinction between different kinds of fear (?) doesn't actually matter for powering the doors.

Hmm.

To what extent is the "life-threatening situation" fear the same feeling as the "watching a horror movie" fear though? Hmm. That's a question. Is it the same feeling? It's like... when we watch movies, we *want* that kind of feeling, it's exciting, even though we definitely would NOT want to be in the dangerous situations the movie characters are in. Watching it is fun, but if it was happening in the real world, it would be terrible. Is that the feeling that powers the monster world?

Hmm, then maybe people consensually being scared in a haunted house could accidentally enter the monster world. Rather than people running from actual life-threatening danger. 

Hmm.

Or does it only work if there are literal monsters there?

Hmm.

I still need a fanfic about this though.

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Related:

Celia and Mike's Baby 

"Elemental": a movie about immigration, culture, and giving up the life your parents built for you 

Buzz Lightyear and the Years We Lost to Covid 

The Privilege and Complicity of Fix-It Felix Jr 

Team Rocket Should Get Real Jobs

Blogaround

 Links not related to the antichrist:

1. The Walmart Effect (2024, via) "In it, the economist Justin Wiltshire compares the economic trajectory of counties where a Walmart did open with counties where Walmart tried to open but failed because of local resistance. In other words, if Walmart is selecting locations based on certain hidden characteristics, these counties all should have them. Still, Wiltshire arrives at similar results: Workers in counties where a Walmart opened experienced a greater decline in earnings than they made up for with cost savings, leaving them worse off overall."

2. Against fallacy-spotting (May 4) "Most arguments are not about logical inferences. Arguments are about warring narratives. I tell a story, you tell a story, and we each decide what story is most compelling."

Also from Siggy: Why does asexual representation need to be explicit? (May 4) "So what exactly do we want asexual representation to do, and why does non-explicit representation fail to accomplish it?"

3. Not fleeing: New report shows more wealthy residents in Mass., 2 years into 'millionaire's tax' (April 28, via) "Voters narrowly approved a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million in a statewide ballot referendum in November 2022."

4. Federal judge says results of North Carolina court race with Democrat ahead must be certified (May 6) Good news here. Hopefully this is over. I've been following this because I'm an overseas voter, and the Republican candidate was trying to get the overseas absentee ballots thrown out.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Action item: You can leave a public comment on this proposal about Rescinding the Definition of Harm under the Endangered Species Act (via). The deadline is May 19. See this article for info about what this proposed change means: Destroying endangered species' habitat wouldn't count as 'harm' under proposed Trump rule (April 17)

2. Moving to Canada: Immigration Overview for Transgender U.S. Citizens (February 11) This is useful- it's about the reality of how immigration systems work- if you're privileged enough to be able to find a job in another country, you'll be able to immigrate and it won't be much of a problem. If you're in danger in your home country and applying for asylum, you need to know that is very tricky.

3. Fact Check: Trump's HHS Review On Trans Care Filled With Pseudoscience, Pushes Conversion Therapy (May 2) "Before delving into the document’s most egregious factual distortions, it’s worth emphasizing that it has no listed author and bears none of the hallmarks of scientific rigor. There is no evidence of peer review. Instead, the report reads less like a medical analysis and more like an anti-trans screed—politicized, inflammatory, and devoid of scholarly grounding."

Also from Erin in the Morning: "Focus On Real Issues That Matter," AZ Governor Hobbs Vetoes Anti-Trans Bills (May 6)

And: SCOTUS Allows Military Ban That Calls Trans People "Dishonorable" To Go Into Effect (May 7)

4. Trump says he's ending federal funding for NPR and PBS. They say he can't (May 2) "'CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President's authority,' the corporation wrote in a statement issued Friday morning. 'Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.'"

Hey now is a great time to donate to NPR~

5. Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign-made movies to save 'dying' Hollywood (May 6) "It was unclear if the tariffs would apply to movies on streaming services as well as those shown in theaters, or if they would be calculated based on production costs or box office revenue." What? What on earth?

6. 'We took on Trump and won': USDA will unfreeze money meant for Maine (May 5) "This development marks the latest chapter in the ongoing legal battle between the state and the Trump administration over Title IX, presidential power, and transgender athletes."

7. The ruling against Trump's law firm order shows how to respond in this moment (May 5) "As one amicus aptly put it, '[o]ur judicial system is under serious threat when determining whether to file an Amicus Curiae brief could be a career-ending decision. But, when lawyers are apprehensive about retribution simply for filing a brief adverse to the government, there is no other choice but to do so.'"

8. U.S. intelligence memo says Venezuelan government does not control Tren de Aragua gang (May 6) "The memo contradicts claims by President Trump, who has accused Maduro of controlling the gang, which Trump says is invading the U.S. The government has relied on this argument to justify the deportation of alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act."

9. Trump, asked if he has to 'uphold the Constitution,' says, 'I don't know' (May 4)

Blogaround

Links not related to that felon:

1. Fan.tasia (2016, via) Wow, this is incredible. It's a mashup of scenes from Disney cartoons, mostly Disney Renaissance, and the way they're all cut together is extremely well-done. Amazing.

2. Will Market Shake Up Smooth the Road for Takeout Couriers? (April 30) "At the same time, JD announced plans to recruit 100,000 full-time couriers and provide them with social insurance, a potentially major shift in an industry that currently relies on a freelance, uninsured workforce."

Also from Sixth Tone: Starting Today, Rules Against Prepaid Rip-Offs Take Effect in China (May 1) I hear about this kind of thing all the time in China. People join a gym and pay for a yearlong membership, and then suddenly the gym closes, and it's impossible to get in contact with anyone to get a refund. Or people buy a package of 50 classes for their kid to do some kind of sport or extracurricular activity, and suddenly, without any notice at all, the place closes and there's no way to get your money back. So what you have to do is, first of all, DON'T prepay for things like that, and second, try to only buy classes/memberships from companies that have existed for a long time and are unlikely to suddenly disappear.

So I'm glad to see that China is making laws to protect customers in these kinds of cases.

3. Debate and Switch - The Trope That Ruins Stories (March 28, via) 33-minute video. It's about stories which set up a really interesting moral conflict, where the villain points out some problem, or presents some idea which could potentially be a good idea, and it could be a really cool story if that conflict was explored. But nope, it doesn't get explored, it gets totally ignored because then the villain randomly kills a bunch of people, or something, and so we all see that the villain is bad and must be defeated, and nobody ever comes back to the insightful points the villain had brought up in the beginning.

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Links related to that felon:

As always, you don't have to read all the news if it's too stressful. Instead, DO SOMETHING. Protest. Contact your congress people. Donate money. Check on the immigrants in your life and see if they need help.

You don't have to be up-to-date on everything! Better to find 1 issue you care about a lot, and fight for that. Better to do that than just be paralyzed and overwhelmed.

1. Mohsen Mahdawi — the Columbia student arrested at his citizenship appointment — speaks (April 29) "I see the risk, I see the opportunity, and I want the American people to see this, too. To see this level of injustice. That I am doing everything legally, that I have prepared and studied for the Constitution and that I went willingly and respected the law, did everything the way how it's supposed to be done."

2. Trump is jailing immigrant families again. A mother, father and teen tell of ‘anguish on a daily basis’ (April 24) "Gabriela and Jason struggled to find the words to help their daughter. 'Imagine seeing your child sad because they can’t go to school. And you can’t even say, ‘Let’s go to the corner. Let’s go get ice cream. Or some chips,’' Gabriela said. 'How do you explain any of this to a child? Your mom can’t do anything for you, your dad can’t do anything.'"

3. RFK Jr. to require placebo-controlled studies for new vaccines (May 1) Well this is a bad idea.

4. Education Department stops $1 billion in funding for school mental health (May 1) "To be able to provide those [mental health] services and then have it ripped away for something that is completely out of our control, it's horrible,' Fialkiewicz says. 'I feel for our students more than anything because they're not gonna get the services that they need.'"

5. Trump-appointed federal judge blocks use of Alien Enemies Act for Venezuelans in South Texas (May 1) "Other courts have sought to block the Trump administration from deporting anyone under the act. But this is the first time a judge has ruled that the act cannot be used against people who are alleged gang members invading the United States."

6. DOJ Proposes Giving Legal Advice to Immigrants in Cases It Oversees (May 1) "'[Families are] being asked to trust the government that harmed them to tell them how to move forward in the best way for them,' said Sara Van Hofwegen, managing director of legal access programs at Acacia Center for Justice, which has provided the services for the past year. 'The government hasn’t shown them that they have their interests in mind.'" Yeah this is extremely suspicious.

Figuring Out What I Believe About "The Prince of Egypt"

Scene of Moses leading the Israelites, from "The Prince of Egypt: The Musical." Image source.

[I guess I'll put a spoiler warning: spoilers for the biblical story of the exodus]

Did you know there is a musical version of "The Prince of Egypt"? Yes, this is amazing, I was on a plane recently looking at what movies they had, and they had "The Prince of Egypt: The Musical." !!!!!! I watched it and it was AMAZING. I love the cartoon movie "The Prince of Egypt," and this musical version was all that and more. Seriously, if you're a fan of "The Prince of Egypt," try to get your hands on this musical version, it's incredible. Here's a trailer I found on youtube.

At the end, when the Israelite people are finally free from slavery in Egypt, and they're celebrating, singing the song "When You Believe," I was so into it, thinking to myself "I believe this. I believe in a God who is powerful, who parted the Red Sea and saved people."

And then I was like, wait, what? We're talking about the bible story of the exodus here. I very much do NOT believe this is a true story. For one thing, I've read posts from bible scholars like Peter Enns which say there just isn't archaeological evidence that a huge population of people came out of Egypt and wandered through the desert, eventually settling in Israel. For another thing, the way the plagues would have DEVASTATED the Egyptian economy, if this was a true story. Egyptians would have starved to death, with plague after plague attacking various aspects of their agricultural system. And then the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn sons- every family in Egypt lost their firstborn son. That's horrible. In order to free Their people from slavery, God needs to kill all those innocent children- seriously? That's the God you wanna believe in?

(See also, the best bible fanfic I have ever read: Lament for the Slave Girl in Pharaoh’s House by Micah J. Murray.)

So what's going on with me? Why am I feeling like "I believe this"? What on earth?

So I thought about it for a while and I figured it out. It's the same feeling I had while watching "A Muppet Christmas Carol."

I don't actually care about sending plagues, or parting the Red Sea, or this drama about whose god is the most powerful. I don't believe in any of that. The part I believe in is people being freed from slavery, people celebrating, people working together. Happiness. Freedom. Love. 

When people are happy, when people love each other, when people are free from oppression, I believe God is there. But also, we shouldn't wait around for a miracle to happen. We need to help each other. We need to work to make the world better. Don't expect God to come and save us; we have to do the work to save ourselves.

I used to really want to see miracles, because it would be *evidence* and I could be sure my beliefs were *right*. But now I'm like, there are things more important than being right about whether God exists, etc. Things like helping each other. Liberation. Love. Turns out that's what I believe about "The Prince of Egypt."

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Related:

"Muppet Christmas Carol" Is My Religion

Blogaround

 Happy Easter!

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Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Pope Francis, voice for the poor who transformed the Catholic Church, dies on Easter Monday (April 21) 

2. How I developed a game (April 21) "If you’re just starting out as a hobbyist, your entry point is one or two tiers down from indie–a tier that you may have never played yourself."

3. Mississippi Supreme Court Allows Judge to Block Name Changes for Trans People Under 21 (April 23) "Name changes related to gender transition are singled out. Other name change requests—such as an 18-year-old woman who wants to take her husband’s last name—do not seem to be subjected to the same level of scrutiny."

4. ‘Chemistry Mahjong’ Aims to Make Science Fun (April 23) Cool!

5. Tennis Balls (April 23) From xkcd.

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Links related to the antichrist:

A lot of links today. As always, you don't have to read all of them. There's no benefit to making sure your anxiety is up-to-date on every single bad thing going on. What actually does matter is that you do something. Do something. Protest, help immigrants, check on your trans friends, donate money, contact your Congress people.

1. Judge Blocks Passport Ban For Plaintiffs, Citing Government Animus And Equal Protection (April 19) "The judge ruled the policy was “arbitrary and capricious,” likely in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. The judge also ruled that the decision was based in animus and discrimination towards transgender people. While the injunction currently applies only to the named plaintiffs, a broader ruling protecting all transgender Americans is expected in the coming weeks." This is very good news for trans people!

2. Hitchcock for Dummies (April 21) "Here you have the premise for a dozen different Hitchcock-style thrillers. How does your protagonist get tangled up in international conspiracies and espionage? Simple: They are mistakenly included on a group-chat amongst the conspirators."

3. Mahmoud Khalil misses son's birth after ICE official denies his request to be there (April 21)

4. Hegseth 2nd Signal chat cause for 'worry' about nation's security, says Rep. Jim Himes (April 21) "No, I can't imagine why his wife, his brother and his personal lawyer would need to know particular aircraft that are to be used in an upcoming attack."

5. A Chicago man was deported to an El Salvadoran prison, his family says (April 16) "Panicked, YD frantically searched online for more information on the whereabouts of her partner. That’s when she discovered a video, shared widely on social media, of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem touring the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a maximum security prison in El Salvador."

6. CDC's cruise ship inspectors laid off amid bad year for outbreaks (April 10, via) "At least a dozen outbreaks have been documented so far this year on cruise ships, mostly from norovirus. Some of those outbreaks have made headlines for sickening dozens or even hundreds of people."

7. New images could change cancer diagnostics, but ICE detained the Harvard scientist who analyzes them (April 22, via) "When asked how many people in his lab could do all of that, he said simply: 'That was only her. It was only her.'"

8. Inside Trump’s Upstate NY migrant hunt: Border Patrol’s meaner tactics snare workers and families (April 17, via) "They have been charged with no crimes other than illegally entering the U.S. They are brothers, spouses and parents. They replace roofs, make tamales, mulch suburban gardens and pack apples. They work the day shift and the night shift. They buy houses, pay rent and taxes."

9. The courage to be decent (April 23) "What matters is that acts we once took for granted as virtuous, routine, and safe — telling the truth, representing those oppressed by the state, providing legal aid to the powerless, volunteering to work at a polling site, basic journalism — now carry some risk. They now require some courage. Maybe the government won’t send you to prison. At least not yet. But it can make your life really difficult."

10. Elon Musk's baby mama drama matters (April 21) "Musk has over a dozen kids, but doesn't seem to have a family."

11. Did the Supreme Court Just Grow a Spine? (April 22) "Trump was attempting to make an end run around the Supreme Court’s authority, and not only did the court tell him “no,” it told him “no” in the middle of the night, without even letting his lawyers or his Manchurian justices (Thomas and Alito) spit out their objections."

12. Funding cut for landmark study of women's health (April 23) "The study, begun in the 1990s, has produced a series of groundbreaking results and was continuing to gather valuable data about women's health."

These MAGAs claim they're "protecting women" by searching high and low, possibly inspecting everyone's genitals, to find 1 middle-school trans girl trying to play sports, so they can ban her. And at the same time, things that actually do help women, like this scientific study, are getting cancelled. 

UPDATE: Good news, the funding has been un-cancelled: In a reversal, the Trump administration restores funding for women's health study (April 25)

13. NIH autism study will pull from private medical records (April 23) WTF!

14. How to find upcoming protests made EZ (April 21)

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. (February 20, via) "The surge in this life-threatening condition, caused by infection, was most pronounced for patients whose fetus may still have had a heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital."

2. How China’s ‘Ne Zha 2’ Beat ‘Inside Out 2’ to Become the Highest-Grossing Animated Film in History (February 25) There's a new cartoon movie in theatres, "Ne Zha 2" (pronounced "neh ja 2") and it's HUGE. It's breaking records. Not sure if y'all outside of China have heard about this?

3. Rain, Ruin, Repeat: The Chinese Villages Caught in Climate Chaos (February 25) "At 1 a.m. on July 27, villages across the region awoke to a relentless barrage of phone alerts, broadcast warnings, and the deafening clang of gongs — a rural alarm meant to signal immediate danger."

4. A child has died in the Texas measles outbreak (February 26) This is really sad. Everyone, make sure your kids are vaccinated.

5. Over 7,000 from scam centers in Myanmar are awaiting repatriation after crackdown (February 27) "Amy Miller, who is Southeast Asia director of aid group Acts of Mercy International and is based in Thailand's Mae Sot on the Myanmar border, told the AP she has never seen such a large-scale release of potential victims of human trafficking."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Btw, I don't actually believe in "the" antichrist. I just call that felon "the antichrist" or "the orange antichrist" because it's BONKERS how the people who were always on the lookout for the antichrist (signaling the end of the world is coming), who speculated endlessly about every major world leader possibly being the antichrist (is the pope the antichrist? is Obama the antichrist???), on the lookout for a leader who is greedy and dishonest and immoral and yet the crowds love him and he's even deceived Christians - THOSE PEOPLE are the ones who are now bowing down and selling their souls to him. It's just so unbelievable to me.

Here's what I want to say to them: When Christians say, "Jesus is Lord," what we mean is "Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not." Get it right.

2. "See You In Court": Maine Gov Responds to Trump's Face Over Anti-Trans EO At Governor's Address (February 23) "In a statement, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey vowed to 'defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.'"

Also from Erin in the Morning: Nazis Burned Trans Books To Usher In Fascism: Now Trump Does The Same (February 25) "Trump’s digital erasure of transgender people is more than policy—it is a declaration that the very existence of certain human beings is unwelcome in the official record. This is not a hallmark of a democratic leader respecting courts and laws; it is the move of someone intent on atrocity."

The evangelical position on this has always been that being trans is not a real thing. I'm not surprised that now that they have power, they want everyone to act like being trans is not a real thing. 

We have to resist. 

3. Data Rescue Project (via) A site summarizing the efforts to archive government data because it's being removed from government sites.

4. “We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump (February 13, via) "Since 1979, the department’s civil rights arm has worked to enforce the nation’s antidiscrimination laws in schools. It operates under a congressional mandate to uphold the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the federal laws that prohibit discriminating against students because of gender or disability."

5. Federal computers are hacked to show fake AI video of Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet (February 25) "'Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs,' Kabas said, quoting an anonymous agency source."

6. Bad Bosses are not beloved (February 25) "This, again, is part of the definition of a Bad Boss — sneering contempt for whatever it is that you do resulting in interference with your ability to do it."

7. People Are Mass-Emailing Elon Musk In Response To His "What Did You Do Last Week?" Message To Federal Workers (February 25, via) Oh it turns out we can all email Elon at hr@opm.gov and tell him 5 things we did.

8. Jeff Bezos' revamp of 'Washington Post' opinions leads editor to quit (February 26) "'We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,' Bezos wrote in a memo to staffers announcing the changes." What on earth.