Month: October 2024

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A Certain Aesthetic

This is an extremely rare species, the population is fragmented with a total size of less than 5,000 km².
This species is part of the Microhylid frog family and molecular data has shown that the initial divergence of the Microhylidae family to have taken place about 66 millions of years ago, or immediately after the Cretaceous extinction event.
The main threat to this species is the conversion of forested area to cultivated land.

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The Witches by Kyri Koniotis

It was not witches who burned.
It was women.
Women who were seen as:
Too beautiful,
Too outspoken,
Had too much water in the well (yes, seriously),
Who had a birthmark,
Women who were too skilled with herbal medicine,
Too loud,
Too quiet,
Too much red in their hair,
Women who had a strong nature connection,
Women who danced,
Women who sang,
or anything else, really.
Any woman was at risk of burning in the 1600’s. Sisters testified and turned on each other when their babies were held under ice.
Children were tortured to confess their experiences with “witches” by being fake executed in ovens.
Women were held under water and if they could float, they were guilty and executed. If they sank and drowned they were innocent.
Women were thrown off cliffs.
Women were put in deep holes in the ground.
Why do I write this?
Because knowing our history is important when we are building a new world.
When we are doing the healing work of our lineages and as women.
To give the women who were slaughtered a voice, to give them redress and a chance of peace.
It was not witches who burned.
It was women.

~ Fia Forsström (Excerpt)

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Just The Right Amount of Fretting

From Greg Fallis:

We’re two weeks out from election day and there’s a whole lot of OMG OMG Trump’s gonna try to steal the election if he loses OMG WTF do we do now?! floating around in social media. And it’s making some folks downright frantic.

Yeah, Trump is absolutely going to try to steal the election when he loses. That’s just a fact. We all know it. We saw him try to do it four years ago. Of course, he’s going to try it again. This time he’s better prepared for it. This time he knows what he did wrong last time. (Okay, that’s not entirely true; Trump is just a bone-ignorant as he was last time, but now he’s got a cadre of feral GOP fascists who are far more skilled at ratfucking.) This time the stakes are higher…both for the nation and for Trump his ownself. He loses, and he’s looking at prison.

So yeah, it’s understandable that folks are worried. EXCEPT for this: the Dems are also better prepared than last time. We’ve had four years to put as many safeguards in place as possible. We’ve had four years to anticipate Trump’s moves. Things look better for us than they did four years ago. For example:

        • We’ve changed the Electoral Count Act to make it far more difficult for state legislatures to reverse the results of an election.
        • We have hundreds of lawyers, lawyers in every state, ready to counter the GOP’s attempts to ratfuck the votes, and they’ve got dozens of briefs already written and ready to file, tailored to each state.
        • The governors of five of the seven so-called ‘swing’ states are Democrats. The two GOP-led states includes Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger both resisted Trump’s efforts four years ago.
        • Of the 60+ lawsuits brought by Trump four years ago, all but one was shot down. Many of the judges in those cases were Republicans, some appointed by Trump his ownself. They’re no more likely to agree with him this time.
        • Four years ago Trump had the Department of Justice and the Attorney General in his pocket to help him. Now, the DOJ and the AG are more independent.

This isn’t to say that your anxiety isn’t warranted. It’s not to say there’s nothing to fret about. Trump, his Nazgûl lawyers, and his angry supporters are willing to use any corrupt means that might give them a chance to obtain power, including violence. We HAVE to be concerned and vigilant.

But remember, Trump failed last time. He’ll almost certainly fail again. Failure is Trump’s true brand. Trump is all make-up and weird hair. His strength is mostly an illusion. So yeah, there’s reason to fret. It’s right and proper to fret about the election.

Fret enough to get out to vote. Fret enough to encourage your friends and fam to vote. Fret enough to put up a yard sign or cough up some coin to donate to your local candidates. Ain’t nothing wrong with fretting about this election.

But don’t fret too much.