#Christian chevron

[agape4]

Assignments to divergent catalog of parameters and the mode or behavior and policy or ethics and to logos or symbol to how that apply to interest as to ideals to prices afforded or outside merits or outside the realm to vaild to realize what biases and perjducies and risks to simply notions that function and class are not wrong but ethical how or mistaken but limited outside Unnecessary boundaries or outbounds outside best ideals rejected to how they apply as however diversity and unresolved outside the scope to what concern be held universal but further inheritance or exceptions not generalized but given example to ethic won't consist

as divergence applying of groups of information relations possibility to unrealistic handling to wave possibilities or authentic to what sentiments to validity to logos or limition as emotional self pity rejects any other expression of care or motive intentions never existed past the themes brought about to exculde whole notions or different level of infromation authenticacy where authorship is less meriting typical because it is not directed to any repect of authority to anyone and if so ideal to be rejected to proofs to one challenge than demand it but this ideal od limitions are developmental but have no personal motives to goal but ethical obligations and desire to any possibility of chase simple obligations won't must exist

to any future good that can't be refined by any life experience that were much possible past the conditions of predefined by arrangement outside my defining to notion I simply handle what lead to my next possible minimization development that don't have that kind of agenda past divine simplicity to my meditation

as if I am allowed to afford what I might to my trust I can pay then that is done until not allowed to do su further as society does this one it does I care not much to motives outside my power

as that so simple to my limited mobility and blanace and means to carry myself about as a bus is not means to carry much a motor vehicle I can't move about to secure to my good much property

as it is best I not afford any burden of owning what is lost to way to not obtain what lost to repeating efforts and so only a pound maximum to blanace to walk long distances otherwise shorter or with a walker to Injury when it is frozen cold to move it about to my inability to tolerate but to have in my short and tee shirts waiting and sleeping at bus to stop before the bus show in morning might be alright in Arzonia Phoenix

as it typical warm so I won't anything heavy and typical it is wet more so in the summer and to hardship to risk of death

as I will attempt a pay for place to what fee or depart on my lone way to my solitude and return in the spring as I can afford to homeless without of walker as I won't need gear to my risks because winter there is what 90 degrees night and day and winter time

and so I can sleep waiting for bus to go so place when first bus arrive in Phoenix Arzonia

as I can return in spring time when I need not risk myself here as I can't survive anyway I won't have any means that any thing can't fit where every it is false or true or other to which it is or is not or possible maybe or whatever it just means endless divergent answer of many endless assigns and how and why and how relations of infromation is defined to their validity as I have my own way of thinking and living my alone as even when with my wife we worked different shifts and slept and watched and did different things but on one day out of week he always went to the movies

and went out to eat before hand and so we had health relations to share what seem to enjoy together to short associations but we both peefered our solitude set apart for most time together

as typical I did graveyard for seven years and she did medical billing in the morning and so slept and worked and used living spaces always at different times with exception to movies and grocery shopping as we enjoyed times we found to collective behavior that any couple topical had once a week to our mutual association.

[the-first-door]

There is a saline WATCHTOWER. Ascending a million feet up and descending a million feet down. Do you understand? And above its peak is a sulfrous sun, below its plinth a silver moon, and the moon and its elements flow outward of the vertical axis and taint the technicolor ocean around. Do you understand? And within the sun above, you see a waning flame, flickering with the spinning winds of the firmaments. For every spin of the wick above, only one-thousandth the wind seventy-seven paces around it turns, and another seventy-seven paces yonder until a fool's stale air, braise, braise, braise, the curse-bread of the outer girdle; heretoforfth, the WATCHTOWER an axel, the notions are of a cryptic dominion. Do you understand?

even now, they want to scrounge up all of its helium-3 for delusions of harnessing fusion. no moon, lunar or terrestrial, is secured from the industry. thousands of little rainbows across the salty oceans, plucked right out of the sky--stealing life from the sun and the stars, how could we not expect it all to come crashing down?

God's handcrafted cosmos, ravaged by industry, will wipe away the non-believers, a cosmic flood; a test. those who are left will look up and peer into heaven, free of the division--purified by sin and repentance.

chevron and exxonmobil are the panopticon

[chicinsilk]

Dior

Gianfranco Ferré for Christian Dior Haute Couture Fall/Winter 1989-90 Collection. Marpessa Hennink wears a herringbone suit and drapes a shawl decorated with jet pearls. (Agnona), embroidery by Lesage.

Gianfranco Ferré pour Christian Dior Collection Haute Couture Automne/Hiver 1989-90. Marpessa Hennink porte un tailleur à chevrons est drapé d'un châle orné de perles de jais. (Agnona), broderies par Lesage.

Photo Etienne Tordoir

[bijoumikhawal]

Telli embroidered dresses from Upper Egypt, Costumes of Egypt: The Lost Legacies by Shahira Mehrez. These are most commonly executed on black cotton fabric, but rayon became popular in the mid 19th-century. Mehrez also mentions a few rare silk dresses she's seen, but none are pictured here.

These two dresses are singled out by Mehrez as being most likely for Coptic women due to the large crosses around the neckline, though she identifies the trefoils, diamonds, and chevrons as likely being Christian in origin. The chevrons often end with crosses or diamonds, and Mehrez believes the diamonds are themselves stylized crosses, as surviving garments of Coptic priests from previous centuries sometimes have crosses enclosed within diamonds, and on a small scale (as with the chevrons) the shapes are quite similar.

The girls in these photos are identified by her as Coptic Christians as well, in part due to the diamond motif, which with the addition of smaller diamonds at the points, is more recognizable as a cross. The disparity in how much embroidery is used could signify that a lot of embroidery was considered inappropriate for a girl before marriagable age.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

We are faced with a radically partisan GOP controlled Supreme “Court” that has been working for the past few years to reshape America to match their right-wing vision of what the nation should look like. It’s literally jaw dropping when you review the numerous legal precedents overturned by these Republican justices in an effort to force their far-right agenda upon us. The most obvious example is the GOP court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, thus, stripping women of a fundamental constitutional right.  This decision was not about the law, it was solely about the anti-choice activists in black robes on the court finally having the requisite votes needed—thanks to Donald Trump—to end the right to reproductive freedom. Since Roe was overturned, 14 GOP controlled states have in fact fulfilled the goals of the GOP justices by implementing total abortion bans—many even in the case of rape.

In 2022, the religious zealots of the court overturned the 1971 decision of Lemon v. Kurtzman that was created to preserve the wall between church and state. But the GOP theocrats on the bench in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton ended what was known as “the Lemon test” in an effort to make it easier for lower courts to usher in “Christian nationalism.” (Overturning the Lemon decision is why the Louisiana GOP enacted the recent law to mandate the Ten Commandments in public schools--as I wrote about.)

Just last week, the GOP court again overturned long standing legal precedent by ending what was known for 40 years as “Chevron deference” which had required lower courts to give wide leeway to decisions made by the federal agencies charged with implementing federal laws. But conservatives have long been gunning for Chevron since this legal principle empowered federal agencies to implement regulations that protected people but cost GOP donors money—such as regulations dealing with protecting the environment, addressing climate change, worker protections, food and drug safety, the financial sector and more. Then there are their decisions that have weakened rights on the way to ultimately ending. These include this GOP Supreme Court further undermining the Voting Rights Act, striking down a century old gun law designed to save lives from gun violence and in 2023, the GOP justices rolled back anti-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community in the name of “religious freedom.” 

Beyond that, there is the conservative justices continued efforts to legalize political corruption apparently because it helps their wealthy GOP benefactors-like Clarence Thomas’s Harlan Crow--as we saw last week in the outrageous decision of Snyder v United States. In this case, the six GOP justices ruled that people can give government officials lavish gifts, send them on vacations, or simply pay them thousands but it won’t be considered an illegal bribe as long as the gifts/money is paid after—not before—the official action. Instead that will be viewed as a “gratuity.”  I’m not kidding. As Justice Kavanaugh wrote, “bribes are payments made or agreed to before an official act in order to influence the official with respect to that future official act.” Gratuities, by contrast, “are typically payments made to an official after an official act as a token of appreciation.”  Finally, this week we saw the six GOP justices in essence rewrite the US Constitution to provide absolute immunity to the president for a range of actions not contemplated by the Framers of the Constitution. That is why Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her powerful dissent about the decision, “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

[...]

It was great to see President Biden address the nation Monday night to slam the immunity ruling saying the court had done a "terrible disservice to the people of this nation." Biden rightfully added, "No one is above the law, not even the President of the United States."

But Biden did not call for Supreme Court reform. That is something the President and all Democrats running for federal office in 2024 must do. Bluntly, there’s simply no way that any Democrat running in 2024 for federal office can credibly tell us they will fight for reproductive freedom, equality for the LGBTQ community, preventing discrimination against people of color, saving lives from gun violence, protecting voting rights and our democracy, addressing climate, etc. if they do not make reforming the Supreme Court a top priority. After all, it is this GOP Supreme Court—not Congress—that is the one changing policies on these vitally important issues.

The issue of SCOTUS reform is not only grounded in valid policy concerns, but also politically a winner as well. Recent polls find approval levels for the US Supreme Court at all-time lows.  The reason is apparent. Seven in ten registered voters believe the Supreme Court is “mainly motivated by politics,” as a 2023 Quinnipiac poll found. Backing that up is an AP poll from last month where 70% say the justices are less about impartiality and more motivated by ideology. This explains why nearly 70% or more of Americans support a range of reforms to the Court. For starters, a recent AP poll found 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. A same number support an age limit for serving on the Court.

Interestingly, 60 percent of Americans in that same poll think there should be an equal number of Democrats, Republicans and independents on the high court. That is something I can see appealing to people like President Biden to champion given it’s focused not on “packing” the court but balancing the court. SCOTUS reform must also include ethics laws--which is supported by 75% of Americans.  

Dean Obeidallah is correct: Every Democrat, from President Joe Biden on down to your Congressperson, should make SCOTUS reform a critical priority.

Decades of right-wing control of the court has damaged its credibility, especially with the heinous rulings made in recent years by right-wing black-robed judicial activist tyrants on SCOTUS, in particular the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, and Trump v. United States rulings.

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the Day of Ukrainian Statehood

On July 8, a Russian missile struck Kyiv. A direct hit.

The Kh-101 cruise missile.

It was designed to hit significant military targets. Putin hit a children's hospital with it.

“Okhmatdyt.”

One of hundreds of Ukrainian hospitals that have been, unfortunately, destroyed by Russian missiles, bombs, artillery.

From “Okhmatdyt,” the world saw thousands of photos and videos. Of what happened. And how Ukrainians united.

They saw how Ukraine is being targeted for destruction. And how, despite everything, Ukraine withstands the attacks.

How it unites the world to protect life. And how the world is inspired by what Ukraine achieves.

Here, as in thousands of similar places, Ukraine has shown itself to be the nation we are all proud of.

The nation we fight for.

Which is pure in heart and strongest when we all care for each other and when we see each other as our own.

And when we all are not afraid to defend Ukraine.

This is the Ukraine that has been preserving itself through the centuries – no matter what happens.

And no matter what invaders come to our land, Ukraine always finds the strength not only to endure but also to preserve within itself what separates us from evil.

Dear Ukrainians!

We are fighting against a terrible enemy. One that cannot be called human. And one that is infinitely far from true Christianity.

Its essence is ruins. The death it brings. And which we must overcome.

Ukraine cannot agree to anything less than to live. Anything less than to preserve itself. Anything less than to remain human.

Ukraine will not succumb to the evil that sheds blood for its own sick self-assertion. That despises truth, both human and divine, and devalues everyone except itself.

Russia builds its statehood precisely on this.

But we are different.

The history of Ukrainians on this land goes back more than a thousand years.

And no matter what strangers came here, no matter who did everything to prevent Ukraine from being itself, they did not break our people and the spirit of this land. They did not break what makes us Ukraine.

I want to thank everyone who came to “Okhmatdyt” after this strike. And everyone who rescues people after each similar crime by Russia.

To all who helped clear the rubble. Who acted to save children. And to everyone who empathized. Who told the world what was happening.

And I thank everyone in the world who did not stay silent and who seeks solutions to support our defense of life. Who helps our air defense, who supports our soldiers with weapons, who ensures pressure on Russiafor all its evil.

And who does so every time it is necessary to prove that life is stronger than its enemy.

Ukrainians!

I thank you for being true to yourselves, to our goal, to our state.

To our values, which will undoubtedly endure, as they are already rooted in centuries.

They have their roots in Kyivan Rus, continuation in the Cossack state, and their living force today – the force of Ukraine, which is doing the greatest and most important things in its history.

This is Ukraine, which not only defends itself but also unites many others in the defense of life.

Which is proud of its people, and whose heroism is honored by the world.

This is Ukraine, whose flag – our cherished blue and yellow colors – is welcome wherever courage is truly valued. And our trident – our majestic emblem inherited from ancient princes – is seen on chevrons, T-shirts, and even as tattoos.

These are the symbols by which we recognize our fellow Ukrainians anywhere. And these are the emotions that unite us when we hear the sound of Ukraine.

And these are our achievements, which were not given by anyone, but brought by all of us for Ukraine.

All this is our country.

Today, on the Day of Ukrainian Statehood, on the Day of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus’-Ukraine, we remember the path that Ukraine has overcome, and we are fully focused on the battle that Ukraine must win.

This battle is for our independence. So that this independence can be inherited by future generations. Inherited, not fought for. So that we can give them pride in Ukraine, not its pain.

And so that no more "Putins" dare to bring ruins and suffering here.

We are already separated from this enemy by our spirit.

And we must do everything to ensure that our national border with them becomes a true boundary between our world, which is inseparable from the global world, and those who seek to destroy us.

We must defeat this evil, and Ukraine will do it.

There will always be Ukraine here. Our history. Our people. Our state.

Congratulations on the Day of Ukrainian Statehood! And I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine!

Glory to our people! Glory to Ukraine!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

US Supreme Court takes up another reactionary cause.

         It has long been the dream of reactionary conservatives to “dismantle the administrative state.” In the current iteration of what passes for conservative philosophy, the federal government is the problem—never mind that it creates the physical, economic, and regulatory infrastructure that allows American businesses to flourish in the most stable, least corrupt markets in the world. The reactionary majority on the Supreme Court appears poised to supercharge the “dismantling of the administrative state” by overturning a long-established rule that defers federal agencies when they interpret their own regulations (the so-called “Chevron deference” standard).

         On Monday, the US Supreme Court granted review in a case that directly challenges the Chevron deference standard. As Mark Joseph Stern tweeted,

Killing Chevron will be a major victory in the conservative legal movement's war against the administrative state. It'll shift a huge amount of power from the executive branch to the judiciary, allowing totally unaccountable, unelected judges to resolve statutory ambiguities.

         Justice Gorsuch has made overturning the Chevron deference standard a centerpiece of his judicial career. Among the people filing “friend of the court” briefs urging the Court to overturn the Chevron deference standard is John Eastman—who was last seen trying to convince Mike Pence that he could single-handedly reverse the results of the 2020 election. That tells you all you need to know about the alignment of interests in overturning the Chevron defense standard.

The next battle in education: “The American Birthright” curriculum.

         A reader sent a link to an important article in Salon, Right's new social studies plan vows to fight CRT, wokeness and the "overthrow of America". As explained in the article, Christian nationalists have developed and are marketing a thinly disguised Christian nationalist curriculum for adoption in public and private schools. The American Birthright curriculum is Critical Race Theory from a white nationalist viewpoint.

         As explained in Salon,

[T]eachers who attended the first training, in Broward County, emerged with deep concerns. Some said the new civics standards appeared to promote "a very strong Christian fundamentalist way" of analyzing U.S. history. Others recounted that trainers had claimed that America's founding fathers opposed strict separation of church and state, had compared the end of school-sponsored prayer to segregation and had downplayed the history of American slavery in misleading ways. (Slides from the training presentation noted that enslaved people in the U.S. only accounted for 4% of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which both minimizes the number of people ultimately enslaved in America and suggests that other countries' slavery practices were worse.)

         If states are the laboratories of democracy, then public schools are incubators of citizens. We cannot cede the public school system to a curriculum based on Christian nationalism. Tell a friend about the danger posed by the “American Birthright” curriculum.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[jewishbarbies]

I’m so scared for the elections. If Trump wins, I can only imagine how the lack of birth control and other medications are going to affect people like me who have endo + PCOS or just any chronic illness or disorder like that, the lack of hormone therapy for trans people and others who need them, etc. Or people who need mental health meds for things like OCD, depression, anxiety, etc, y’all are on the chopping block as well. I don’t recognise this current republican administration. I’ve never been a republican, but back then, no one was really afraid for their lives if a republican candidate won (discounting Nixon and Reagan).

What I mean is that if Romney won against Obama, everyone would simply just go along with their lives the next day. Nobody was desperately afraid for their lives in America because of the ELECTIONS. Nobody in America was afraid that Romney was gonna kill us all using the aid of the Heritage Foundation and such donors. Nobody was deathly afraid that Romney would’ve gotten rid of certain important aspects of healthcare or overturn Chevron or some shit. Nobody was afraid of him potentially putting the Ten Commandments in public schools. Or overturning Roe v Wade.

Back then, you could have relatively level headed conversations with republicans about politics. You could agree to disagree and move on. Nowadays I’m seeing people who are supposed to be intelligent, people who are teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, business owners, etc lose their MINDS when Trump is even mentioned. It’s like a psychosis.

I miss when Trump was simply a failed businessman and everyone looked at him as such. Nowadays all I see is people comparing him to Jesus and Moses. No human should be worshipped in such a manner. Especially not a politician. Especially not Donald John Trump.

that last paragraph brought up a thought I’ve been having the last couple months. they compare him to jesus and he promises he’s going to bring peace and security, but he’ll actually cause the destruction of the country. he calls himself the chosen one and has said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue and he wouldn’t lose voters. there’s one or two republicans that have been dead a long time that christian conservatives are convinced have been alive and helping him this whole time. idk if anyone will get this, you probably will if you’ve read the bible, but what prominent figure in christian prophecy does that sound like? I’ll give y’all a hint: it’s the opposite of jesus.

[protoslacker]

Disturbing the peace

In overturning Chevron and in giving the president absolute immunity the Supreme Court has radically altered the American system of government. In some ways the authoritarian theocracy they've established bears resemblance to the Government of Iran. While these two decisions are especially significant they are a part of a long term project to remake the court with a decidedly Christian (nationalist) tilt.

There is a well known Bible verse in Luke 2:14 which is alternately translated in variations of "Peace on Earth goodwill towards men" and "Peace on Earth towards people of goodwill" (this article provides a balanced explantion).Lest one imagin the latter as being just another example of "cultural correctness" all of the oldest sources of Luke plainly favor this reading.

We might say of the appointed quintet of right-wing authoritarian justices that they are "people of good will." But I see little evidence that's true. And I propose that one of the best ways that people interested in restoring some semblance of democracy is to vocally point to the evidence that these justices are not people of good will at all.

[bixolox999]

no, cuz why is everyone so casual about wtf is going on in this country. oklahoma state superintendent just required bibles to be a part of grade school curriculum, the president has been granted entire legal immunity, american democracy is falling apart, seperation of church and state is failling, the chevron act just got overturned, peoject 2025 is already in affect, the president refuses to declare a national climate emergency. pollutopn is at an all-time high. the social wealth class is at an all-time high. ww3 is on the brink of starting. China and Taiwan beef. Microplastics, red40, and glycophosphates as well as lead in our food. Celebrities singing and autographing Israeli weapons that are being dropped on literal children. Voter suppression. Sea bed drilling and new oil pipelines. Grizzlies being taken off the endangered and protected species lists. White rhinos literally went extinct. The sun emits thousands of tons of harmful UV radiation. Snapp funding is being withdrawn. Housing prices are through the roof. America cab pretty much have a king now (think pre Magna Carta times in England) abortion, contraception, and ivf rights being stripped away. Student protestors are being prosecuted. "Let them eat cake." Super corporations and big money literally control politics. Mini rebellions and revolutions are starting ALL OVER THE WORLD. Ukraine and Russia are still at war. Russian watercraft in Cuba harbors. Christian nationalism works to overrule the literal constitution. INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE AND FREEDOM OF RELIGION BEING TARGETTED????? no safe asylum for anyone in the world right now. North Korea and Russia form a stronger alliance. Kellogs "let them eat cereal" bullshit. Teens mental health crisis. Flowers are blooming in Antarctica. The ocean is literally trying to kill us. Polaroid bears having to move to warmer climates in order to survive climate change and global warming. The only real presidential candidates are either a tyrant or a dementiated old man being controlled by MAGA Congress, OR a man who used epsteins plane and literally had a worm eat part of his brain. GET YOUR PASSPORTS. this country is fucked and I'm genuially scared to see what our future looks like.

[akookminsupporter]

jm would look cool in this

https://www.dior.com/en_int/fashion/products/313D485AY519_C581-christian-dior-atelier-jacket-blue-chevron-cotton-canvas

Yes, he would! That's exactly his style.

[quotesfrommyreading]

Deer have been on human minds and in human lives for eons. Between 120,000 and 108,000 years ago, Homo erectus relied on deer for food on the island of Java. A Neanderthal living in what is now Germany carved chevron shapes into a deer bone 51,000 years ago. Between 33,000 and 30,000 years ago, Paleolithic people painted on the walls of Chauvet Cave in what is now France. Among the animals they left for us to ponder are red deer, reindeer, and Megaloceros—the largest deer to have ever lived.

Deer have appeared in the art and mythology of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Celts, Hindus, and Chinese, for whom deer represent longevity and prosperity. They are prominently represented in medieval European heraldry, mythology, and culture. The deer is a sacred symbol of the Maya world and its image appears throughout their culture. Maya mythology holds that it was a stag, using his hoof, who formed the sexual organs of the moon. The Maya sacrificed deer to their gods and used deerskin to record the pre-Columbian Maya codices. To this day, many Maya people have the surname Ceh, which means “deer” in the Mayan language.

Across cultures and time, people have revered deer as symbols of spiritual authority. A deer’s antlers, resembling a crown, extend beyond its head and body, connecting it to the heavens. Those same antlers drop off and regrow each year, making them symbols of regeneration. In Christian iconography, the stag serves as a symbol for Christ, conveying piety, devotion, and God’s care for his children. Deer star in countless folk tales and fables. In 1942, Walt Disney Studios released the animated film Bambi, which has helped shape North American perceptions of deer ever since. Through it all, human hunters have prized deer for their meat.

Deer are special. We are not talking about a plague of locusts, rats, or venomous snakes—we’re talking about deer. And whenever the words deer and problem come together, many people have big feelings.

Both Indigenous knowledge and Western science have long recognized that deer can have big impacts wherever their predators are few, causing a trophic cascade—the ecological term for changes throughout a food web. Aldo Leopold, the first professor of game management in the United States, famously observed a century ago how overabundant deer on Arizona’s Kaibab Plateau degraded the habitat to the extent that their population collapsed. “I now suspect,” he wrote in his seminal A Sand County Almanac, “that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.”

Tara Martin has been studying the effects of overabundant deer for more than 15 years. Because some islands in the Salish Sea have deer and some don’t, they provide a natural experimental setup to measure deer’s effect on the environment. Martin has found that palatable plant species cover, richness, and diversity are 92 percent lower where deer are common and 52 percent lower where deer are scarce (less than 0.08 per hectare) compared with areas with no deer at all. On some islands, native black-tailed deer and exotic fallow deer occur at densities of over 20 per square kilometer. The resulting loss of understory means the loss of habitat for numerous bird species, which rely on the first 1.5 meters above the forest floor for cover, nesting sites, and food such as flowers and seeds.

“There are over 300 species in this ecosystem that are being negatively impacted by overbrowsing,” Martin says. “Many of those are plants, but it also includes bumblebees and songbirds, and our amazing alligator lizard and sharptailed snake species that are at risk of [local] extinction.”

  —  Giving Bambi the Boot

[chicinsilk]

Marc Bohan for Christian Dior Spring/Summer 1964 Haute Couture Collection. Lucia Flamini wears a coat and skirt set in pink and white herringbone tweed, wool and mohair by Brossin de Méré, blouse-vest and statement in white linen canvas by Moreau.

Marc Bohan pour Christian Dior Collection Haute Couture Printemps/Eté 1964. Lucia Flamini porte un ensemble manteau et jupe en tweed à chevrons rose et blanc laine et mohair de Brossin de Méré, blouse-gilet et relevé en toile de lin blanche de Moreau.

Photo Jacques Rouchon

[stevensaus]

Stages Of Grief At The Brink Of The Apocalypse

All the content warnings for climate change, nihilism, and existential dread. All of them. This is a unique time for humanity. It is not the apocalyptic sentiment. There are literally dozens of predicted apocalypses in the various Christian traditions alone, and there's recorded warnings of the ending of the world going back to 2800 BCE. What is unique is that for the first time in human history, there's a damn good chance that they're correct. The effects of climate change are larger and worse than expected, happening faster than expected, and in ways that we didn't expect. After several years in Maslow's basement, the entirety of our species finds itself finally unable to ignore the real state of the world. Unable to ignore the onrushing realization of our own mortality. The change in climate -- and weather -- has become large enough that it is inescapably obvious. Suicide rates keep climbing among youth, and it's not difficult to imagine why. Their future has already been destroyed to feed other's greed. Equally obvious are those who have deliberately and intentionally traded human lives and health -- your life and health, your children's life and health -- just so they could get a few more millions, even though they've known the effects of climate change and pollution for decades. They are not nameless, faceless business executives or politicians.

We know who they are. We know, for example, that Shell's Wael Sawan, who, according to Bloomberg {1} "quietly ended the world’s biggest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, the environmental projects designed to counteract the warming effects of CO2 emissions" in June 2023, just before it was ranked the hottest month on record... before being dethroned only a month later by July's temperatures. Or we could look at Manchin's long history of fighting anything resembling dealing with the climate crisis. There are plenty of examples, stretching back years. These are not nameless and faceless people who chose to enrich themselves at the cost of human lives. They are actual people, who have made actual decisions. Decisions that will bring harm to you, your children. To literally everyone you care about. Finding their names and faces is trivial. It's easy to find the lists of those on the board of directors and executive committees for, say, Shell (1, 2), Exxon (1, 2), BP (1, 2), and Chevron (1, 2). It's easy to find the politicians that have been corrupted and subverted. For example, you can see the top 20 Congressional recipients of oil & gas money during the 2022 election cycle in one nice list. There are charts of lobbying spending of oil & gas companies in the United States during election cycles from 1990 to 2022, by receiving political party. Feature articles lay out which House members, for example, got the most cash from the fossil fuel industry. And we know that fossil fuel companies -- and their individual executives -- were aware of climate change, its effects, and their role in it decades ago. We know that they've actively worked to subvert, delay, and derail work to slow or stop climate change. We know who they have bought off in both state and national capitols. We know their names. We know their faces. We know exactly who has -- and who continues to -- murder thousands of people simply to fatten their wallets. We know exactly who is responsible for every death caused by climate change. They're proud of it. Remember this. The people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life. {2} We are the final children of history, raised to believe that we will have a future. But we won't. And we're just learning that fact. Anger is a stage of grief. {1} Full text at https://pastebin.com/raw/sKdGDaY0 {2} From Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Yes, I'm aware of the problematic elements of the work. You're missing the point. Featured Image by Marcin from Pixabay Read the full article

[newstfionline]

Monday, January 20, 2025

Support for Trump’s Policies Exceeds Support for Trump (NYT) Many Americans who otherwise dislike President-elect Donald J. Trump share his bleak assessment of the country’s problems and support some of his most contentious prescriptions to fix them, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Ipsos. A little more than half of the country expresses some desire to see Mr. Trump follow through with his harshest threat to deal with illegal immigration: deporting everyone living in the United States without authorization. Americans are more evenly split on whether Mr. Trump should implement tariffs on countries like China and Mexico, which he has vowed to do as a way to reduce reliance on foreign goods. Still, 46 percent say that trade with foreign nations should be subject to increased tariffs. And a large majority is sympathetic to efforts to strictly limit how doctors can treat children struggling with their gender identity—an issue Mr. Trump and other Republicans made central to their campaigns for office. Seventy-one percent said that no one under 18 should be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs or hormones. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision on the matter later this year.

US cities largely saw a drop in violent crime in 2024, yet many still feel unsafe (AP) As U.S. police departments release preliminary or finalized 2024 crime numbers, many are reporting historic declines in homicides and drops in other violent crimes compared to 2023. In many parts of the country, though, those decreases don’t match the public perception. “The presence of even one murder has a great cost,” said Kim Smith, the director of national programs at the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab. Violence interruption and intervention programs have helped decrease gun violence and homicide numbers in Chicago and elsewhere, Smith said. But even with fewer crimes, people experiencing it in their neighborhood lowers their perception of being safe.

US rejects Venezuelan President Maduro’s reelection, but keeps financial lifeline for his government (AP) Things seemed to be looking up for Venezuela in 2022. Following years of authoritarian rule and withering economic sanctions, President Nicolás Maduro had agreed to work toward a democratic presidential election. The White House, in return, granted him a financial lifeline: a permit for U.S. energy giant Chevron to pump and export Venezuelan oil. Oil wells roared back to life and massive tanker ships returned to Venezuela’s coast to be filled with heavy, hard-to-refine crude destined for the U.S. Maduro’s promised election was neither fair nor free, and the longtime president was sworn in this month for a third six-year term despite credible evidence that his opponent got more votes. Yet, the sanctions reprieve the U.S. offered “to support the restoration of democracy” is still helping fill state coffers. The White House has ignored calls from the main opposition coalition, as well as Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, to cancel a permit that now accounts for around a quarter of the South American country’s oil production.

Warm weather threatens Epiphany ice water plunges for Russia’s Orthodox Christians (AP) Thousands of Russians celebrating the Orthodox Christian feast day of Epiphany, where worshippers bathe in the icy waters of frozen lakes and rivers, have been forced to cancel their traditional ceremonies amid unusually warm winter temperatures. Across Russia, the devout and the daring celebrate Epiphany on Jan. 19 by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers, imitating the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan. Many extol the practice as strengthening both the soul and the body, although rescue workers are on hand in case anyone succumbs to the heart-racing shock of the icy immersion. But unusually warm temperatures have prompted local emergency services in some regions to cancel events, saying the ice is too thin for worshippers to bathe safely.

What the North Koreans took into battle against Ukraine (Washington Post) Ukrainian troops are using items they have recovered from the battlefield to better understand the thousands of North Korean troops that have been assaulting their positions in recent weeks, in the latest global escalation in the war between Russia and Ukraine. The items and Ukrainian soldiers’ accounts of encounters with North Korean forces paint a picture of the secretive North Korean troops—whose existence has not been confirmed by Russia or North Korea—as highly motivated, organized, well-trained and better equipped than Russian infantry, even as they suffer heavy casualties. The retrieved items are especially important because of how hard it has been for Ukrainian troops to capture and question North Koreans in the course of the fighting. Unlike many Russian troops, who Ukrainian soldiers say will often surrender willingly, the North Koreans have fought until their deaths or killed themselves with grenades to evade capture.

South Korea’s impeached president is arrested over martial law declaration and his supporters riot (AP) Hours after South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was formally arrested, triggering rioting by his supporters, his lawyers said Sunday that he remains defiant in his refusal to answer questions over the probe into his declaration of martial law last month. Yoon was formally arrested early on Sunday, days after being apprehended at his presidential compound in Seoul. He faces possible imprisonment over his short-lived authoritarian push, which set off the country’s most serious political crisis since its democratization in the late 1980s. The decision to arrest Yoon ignited unrest at the Seoul Western District Court, where dozens of his supporters broke in and rioted, destroying the main door and windows. They used plastic chairs, metal beams and police shields that they managed to wrestle away from officers. Some were seen throwing objects and using fire extinguishers, destroying furniture and office machines, smashing glass doors and spraying water on computer servers.

Xi Tells Officials Scared of Being Purged: It’s OK to Make Mistakes (WSJ) Chinese leader Xi Jinping is intensifying a war on corruption that has punished officials in record numbers—with the side effect of leaving many unwilling to act for fear of punishment. To help his bureaucrats rediscover their mojo and revive a stagnating economy, Xi is also promoting the message that some mistakes are acceptable. His decree to the Communist Party: Enforcing strict discipline shouldn’t fuel a climate of fear that saps the can-do spirit that once helped power China’s economic rise. The approach is to “combine strict control with loving care,” Xi has said, to “encourage cadres to forge ahead and be enterprising.” To that end, Xi has ordered party enforcers to absolve blame for honest mistakes and rekindle entrepreneurial verve across the rank and file.

Despite truce, Israel has damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings in Lebanon (Washington Post) Despite a 60-day ceasefire with Hezbollah, the Israeli military advanced into dozens of new positions across southern Lebanon in the first 40 days of the deal, damaging or destroying hundreds of buildings as it searched for weapons and other infrastructure, according to a Washington Post review of previously unreported satellite data and open-source imagery, as well as interviews with U.N., Western and Lebanese officials and diplomats. The Israel Defense Forces launched near-daily strikes on Hezbollah’s stronghold during that period, according to the data and imagery. But it’s unclear whether these military actions constitute violations of the ceasefire because the U.S.-led committee to monitor the deal has yet to define what counts as a violation of the truce, diplomats said. Lebanese officials say they have been stunned by Israel’s military activity during the ceasefire and on Dec. 24, Lebanon complained to the United Nations, asserting that here were more than 800 Israeli violations in the first few weeks of the truce.

Gaza ceasefire begins (WSJ) The first Israeli hostages to be released as part of a cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip were turned over by Hamas, beginning a drawn-out process that will see 33 captives freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The faces of the three freed women—all civilians—are well known in Israel, where posters calling for them to be brought home lined streets.

Joy and grief as returning Gazans find communities smashed to rubble (Washington Post) The skies over Gaza finally went quiet for the first time in 14 months Sunday as a fragile ceasefire took hold. The whine of Israeli drones—the soundtrack of more than a year of war—receded. Hamas fighters emerged into the daylight, wearing masks and wielding guns atop pickup trucks, to the cheers of civilians. Displaced Gazans marched in the thousands down dusty roads from makeshift shelters to the hometowns they had fled as the Israeli army advanced. Joy mingled with grief as Gazans began to confront the scale of the loss. Homes reduced to rubble. The bodies of loved ones still buried under the debris. Whole communities flattened. And scars, visible and not, from the war’s human toll: More than 46,900 dead and 110,750 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Gazans returned to a landscape brutalized by bombs: pancaked apartment blocks, a human skull lying on the dusty ground. “The city that always embraced hope and life has been transformed into rubble and ruins as a result of the brutal and systematic aggression,” Ahmad Soufi, the mayor of Rafah, told reporters Sunday morning. “Entire neighborhoods were wiped out, the infrastructure destroyed and the city became uninhabitable.”

The breadlines in Syria (NPR) There are separate lines for men and women outside a Damascus bakery—it’s not polite in this city for men and women to squish against each other. And there are so many people here, waiting for bread, that they’ve parted into gender-segregated queues. The wait is long, and the bread they’re hoping to buy costs up to ten times more than it did just weeks ago—from 400 Syrian lira to 4,000 Syrian lira for a dozen pieces of dinner-plate sized flat bread. That new price is the equivalent of 31 cents. Rahaf, 35, mother to eight children, says she’s barely scraping by. “I’m only alive because I’m not dead,” she says. There have been scenes like this across the Syrian capital’s 69 bakeries since rebels toppled the Assad regime and formed a new interim government in early December. Syria’s old Assad regime heavily subsidized bread, says Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist, co-director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. But it often wasn’t available—one of the reasons why Assad was toppled. And if this new regime can’t resolve the bread crisis, it will soon become a political crisis as well as a hunger crisis. “It’s very hard for us to understand the level of need. The vast majority of Syrians,” says Landis, “they’re just barely subsisting.” Just a few months ago, the U.N. reported that 90% of Syrians were living below the poverty line.

How soda is changing the world (NPR) Soda was a rare treat when Richmond Aryeetey was growing up in Ghana in the 1980s. “You were likely to see soda in the house maybe on festive occasions”—like Christmas, he says. Now, he says, soda is a regular thing. This push for soda has brewed the “perfect storm,” says Aryeetey, who’s now a public health nutritionist at the University of Ghana. A vast new study underscores his point. The study estimates that sugary drinks like soda and energy drinks contributed to over 330,000 deaths and 3 million new cases of diabetes and heart disease combined in 2020. That’s a big jump from an estimate made in a 2015 study in which 184,000 deaths were attributed to the consumption of sugary drinks. “That’s a lot of suffering,” says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a study author and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. “I think our results really highlight this is not a small deal.”