June 18, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1,570.70; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Three months after Breonna Taylor was murdered in her bed, there have still been no arrests. This is unconscionable. Beyonce’s open letter addressing the AG points out the utterly obvious fact this is unacceptable.
Sign a petition: Demand justice for Breonna Taylor. They’ve passed a law under her name to ban no-knock warrants (because as we’ve seen, the police are notoriously scrupulous about following the law since they’re also subject to it /sarcasm) but as of Monday, they STILL HAVEN’T ARRESTED HER MURDERERS.
Done by Forty is matching donations up to $1000.
Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop. There are so MANY good points in here that reinforce what the community and the statistics are telling us. One final idea: consider abolishing the police.
I know what you’re thinking, “What? We need the police! They protect us!” As someone who did it for nearly a decade, I need you to understand that by and large, police protection is marginal, incidental. It’s an illusion created by decades of copaganda designed to fool you into thinking these brave men and women are holding back the barbarians at the gates.
I had never heard of any of these Asian activists before and they did important work:
Michelle’s life lessons during COVID are good reminders
Teachers Face A Summer Of Soul Searching. What Do They Do In The Fall?: “By August, elected officials will give themselves credit for discussing things, as if discussing a problem actually solved it. Some will insist that Corvid-19 is no worse than the flu and we have to put America back to work. Others will admit that the money they approved is not nearly enough to meet the demands. District administrators will complain that they don’t have the necessary resources, but they’ll still get no more help.
And by fall, individual teachers in individual schools will have to figure out how to do the best they can with the little that they’ve got. The district guidance they get will range from restrictively stringent to hopelessly non-existent. Mostly, they’re going to have to figure out how to cope on their own.”
Scalzi on Gen X and trans people. At the time I watched Ace Ventura, I didn’t know anything about trans people but I do now and I’m deeply uncomfortable with how comfortable that movie was in othering trans people. I’d also like to know why women are so deeply threatened by trans people having rights, and by trans activism. In what way does their having rights negatively impact women? Rhetorical question, other people having rights doesn’t take away my rights unless they have the right to harm others with impunity. Like cops and basically our justice system do. But that’s not a small minority of people having more rights, that’s a group of people opting into a system that’s set up to allow brutality. And I’m sick of the argument that trans people are the perpetrators of violence against women. The VAST majority of cases where a man who has abused a woman in my personal life or in the news, it’s a cishet man operating with impunity. He didn’t need to pretend to be a woman to do it. Hell, look at our president! FFS.
Nicole and Maggie reminded me of a cake memory / ritual I used to have. I suspect I got away with it because my parents were too busy to notice. What did you get away with because your parents were too busy to notice?
We are the boiling frog
Text of @IAmSyiDavies’s tweet: As someone from a country that has witnessed a civil war, totalitarian leaders, ethno-religious pogroms, state-sanctioned brutality & the slow eradication of human rights under the guise of criminality, I can frankly tell Americans: You don’t know what you’re playing with.
June 11, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1,570.70; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Hasan Minhaj’s much-needed call to action for immigrants and people of color. I will never understand immigrants I know who supported 45.
I’m glad Abby wrote this: Why I stand with the protesters. Property damage sucks, but preventing the continued injustice of taking human lives is far more important. I see counter protester types out there ready to and armed to protect Ross and Hobby Lobby – why don’t you folks care more about actual living breathing humans?
I’m glad to see Joe and Tawcan discussing racism, privilege, and inequity. I’m glad to see Deb choosing to speak up. I’m glad to see Jim seeing what he’s been missing all these years and speaking up. Same for JD. It matters, and it’s important for people who haven’t been seeing racism or seeing but not speaking up for fear of putting a foot wrong to try anyway.
I never learned about the Ocoee Massacre of 1920.
Donate to These Orgs to Support Black Trans People: “Black trans people often face a specific set of structural, institutional, and personal barriers to accessing basic needs like housing, employment, and safety due to the intersections of their identities. According to 2012 data from Lambda legal, nearly one in two Black transgender people has been to prison, and Black trans people are also much more likely to face discriminatory policies and threats of sexual assault once behind bars.”
24 LGBTQ+ Organizations You Can Support Right Now: “After the unconscionable killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd at the hands of the police, LGBTQ+ advocates are using Pride 2020 as an occasion to speak out on against the racial injustices that still plague our country.”
How Asian Americans Are Reckoning With Anti-Blackness In Their Families
Huge news that the Minneapolis PD is supposed to be disbanded. I’m waiting to see how this will really play out but in the meantime I’m blown away by these rates of ineffectiveness against crime they have been.
A few good things:
A tiny bit of levity, the Pixar dog.
Corina Newsome and #BlackBirdersWeek and in NatGeo
More #BlackBirdersWeek, bird hieroglyphics, and tiny bat!
Do you know about ponies?
Are you spending or saving or both?
What Miser Mom is doing.
I’d like to see this cat, please
I feel for people with cat allergies but also I feel for this cat who just really wants to be in a library. I want to be in a library all the time too, Max.
June 4, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1,570.70; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Black Women Best: Economics Has a Diversity Problem, And Here’s How It Affects Everyone
“@KWright070: I’m seeing a few discussions around PF Twitter that seem to suggest you can either talk about race or finance but you can’t talk about both at the same time. I know it’s a really hard concept to grasp so here are some examples:
Mr SSC is working on undoing the racism that he harbored growing up, and I think it’s so important that we all do the work.
I was pretty mad that the founder of the biggest financial media conference could be so breathtakingly flippant and callous about current events. You may not agree with how the press covers everything, I most certainly don’t and I have critiques of them just like anyone else. But they are shining a lot on some serious corruption and abuse of power and letting us see SOME of the truth out there while we’re (if we’re not Black) safe in our homes (if you’re Black, I know you’re not even safe in your own homes and I would never gloss over that horrible reality). They are risking themselves, literally in many cases, as the police attack them. A photojournalist I know has been 
permanently blinded in one eye because of a police officer shooting a rubber bullet at her face. To dismiss their efforts as “media hype”, and saying that’s the cause of the issues we are facing as a society just hurts my stomach. He later issued a “I’m sorry you were offended” type of apology, but at that point, his other actions of bullying women into silence and even driving them out of the community came out: bullying Tori about calling out misogyny and demanding retraction of her tweets, coming after Melanie and undermining her financially by badmouthing her to her sponsors, keeping people silent through intimidation.
How the Personal Finance Sphere Upholds Systemic Racism
Angela at Tread Lightly’s links this week.
Cup of Jo surprised me with actually addressing On Becoming Anti-Racist.
May 28, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1,570.70; Rural libraries, $321.62.
How are you adjusting your budget during COVID?
I’m staring at Mt Emotional Health, feeling a bit unequal to the task. The days were very long but at some point it feels like the fast forward was pushed and I’m not ready to keep up with this pace.
I often feel like this hummingbird
May 21, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $1551.58; Rural libraries, $321.62.
A Bitches Get Riches primer on applying for unemployment
Julian and Embracing Conflict
Captain Awkward: “How do I set goals if I don’t want anything?” I’m a HUGE goal setter and yet in this present time, even I can’t handle more than the most basic goals beyond “get through this relatively sane however that must happen, help those who need help, teach JB to send mail”.
I grew up on Will Smith in The Fresh Prince, and have long admired his musical and acting talents so I loved this fresh bit of music from him.
NDN Collective: “In South Dakota, checkpoints have been established at the borders of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, home to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, ensuring that all who enter are vetted, screened, and practicing safe measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.” These are the folks we are helping in the Giving project this year. I’m really steamed at Governor Noem who is trying to steamroller the tribes’ ability to protect their vulnerable residents.
Ann Mitchell, one of the last WWII codebreakers, has passed.
Diana: “I don’t mean it hasn’t been difficult to switch to this slower pace during an anxiety-prone time with no relief from the tedium that parenting nonstop can be, because that is true; however, we also delighted in the closeness and love we feel for each other with less intrusion from the outside world.”
I wonder what happened to Muschi….
May 14, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Because JB hasn’t even started school yet and we’re both enormously lucky enough to be home but working full time, we have taken a similar approach to the notion of homeschooling. I know my friends in other states are worn OUT with homeschooling similar aged children and I just don’t see the value in spending your interminable days with your five year old trying to force them to do schoolwork when we’re all stressed out of our minds. We do have a little schooling happening with a professional, and the rest of the time is JB requesting worksheets, doing art, using their imagination, solving puzzles, learning fractions with food, learning to ride a bike, to be independent, and being creative. The fights are far fewer than when they were in school. Go figure. (Though we are not fight and tantrum free at all.)
Asians and Asian Americans: how to practice allyship with the Black community in our racist society
The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
I doff my hat to Tami and her handiness. She built a bed for her dogs that’s pretty cool.
Stockdale Paradox
This REALLY resonates with me (whole thread here). I won’t even engage in “what’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get out” thinking because that’s (for me) too close to the “we’re getting out by….” speculation. I cannot do that and still get through this day to day to day stuff.
May 7, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
How Baby comic hits the Mom thing precisely: “mothers are under inescapable pressure to perform to impossible standards.”
It’s nice that there are still good people out there.
Speaking of good, I couldn’t read the WaPo article that Abby linked to (over my limit?) but I did find another recent article confirming the Burnell Colton and his Lower 9th Ward Market is still helping their community even though he’s not being paid, so I also sent him a check to help out. If you also want to help a helper: Burnell’s Lower 9th Ward Market, 2036 Caffin Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117
Ana’s All The Hats resonated so strongly with me.
Does everyone have a favorite period of art? I just do not.
Why we’re staying home.
Since this all started I firmly believed we need to test test test. It’s not just for statistics, it informs actions. The folks in Groningen felt the same way and it looks like this is working out well. Most crucially, I think, they actually care about saving lives which is far more than I can say for the US government: “Herd immunity can never be a public health strategy. It can never be controlled, and it means people will die, and if you are not very careful a lot of people will die,” Friedrich said.
“It’s not a law that we’re all going to get infected. It’s just the consequences of our insufficient action to protect people.”
Young Barley and Ethel