Notices by Cindy Weinstein (cindyweinstein@mastodon.world)

@GottaLaff

How about California withholds federal taxes? I'm thinking about Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience."

Thank you @nat for boosting this. I just spent the day happily teaching Poe! "The Man of the Crowd" and "Berenice." On a less humorous note, 2025 sure is making me feel like Fortunato. "Nevermore" seems like an appropriate battle cry and we're only 1 day into this real-life horror.

#GeorgeOrwell died today in 1950. His words & admonitions live on. Let us read, remember, & act upon them.

#litstudies
#Bookstodon
#AntiFascism

@GottaLaff

I hope Newsom is having some discussion about withholding California's federal tax dollars.

Excellent point from KTLA weather woman reminding us all to pay attention to what we do: "If there isn't an ignition point, there isn't a fire."

Ignition points include downed power lines and human error (criminal activity is another matter).

#CaliforniaWildFires
#ClimateChange

Reading the truth of the #MAGA disinformation campaign, borne of #misogyny & #transphobia is like breathing clean air: "Even w/in the context of this false info. about the gender makeup of the LAFD, there's no attempt to explain why having women in leadership would harm the ability of the firefighters . . . to do their jobs. It's just a vague gesture — "ew, women" — & a total unwillingness to explain why women are unfit to serve." #AmandaMarcotte

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/10/dei-is-deadly-fox-news-spin-on-california-wildfires-exposes-magas-total-incoherence/

#CaliforniaWildFires

This person, who is blaming #DEI for the #fire fighting in #LA, is the latest addition to the #LATimes editorial board. Nauseating.

If you haven't canceled your subscription to #PatrickSoonShiong's campaign to undermine #democracy through #media #disinformation, now might be the right time.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scott-jennings-says-la-firefighters-too-busy-promoting-diversity/

#PatrickSoonShiong
#LosAngelesTimes
#ScottJennings
#MAGA
#ClimateChange

Simply stunning and horrifying. Thank you Joshua Kaplan. "Sowing that distrust is why Williams is going on the record, albeit without his original name. He still plans to release thousands of files after this article is published — evidence tying sheriffs and police officers to the movement, his proudest coup, plus other records he hopes could become ammo for lawsuits."

https://www.propublica.org/article/ap3-oath-keepers-militia-mole?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#Militias
#MAGA

The brilliant #JoanDidion on the #SantaAna winds.

#LosAngeles
#ClimateChange

"Christian nationalists rationalize their will to dominance on false claims that they are the "true" Americans and the rest of us — liberal Christians, non-believers, non-Christians — are interlopers. That's why fake history is central to their project." @AmandaMarcotte doing the fact-checking (that #Zuckerberg has decided not to)

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/07/why-mike-johnsons-fake-jefferson-prayer-matters/

#ChristianNationalism
#MAGA

The poison of #ToxicMasculinity: "Whether it's radical Islam or #MAGA vitriol, the appeal is obvious. They allow the troubled man to blame others, especially women and "woke" culture, rather than look to themselves. They offer a false promise that their ideologies will transform followers from losers to heroes. What they actually sell them is more of the same poison that led to their problems in the first place: toxic masculinity." #AmandaMarcotte

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/06/masculinity-links-the-new-orleans-attacker-and-the-las-vegas-bomber/

Read the story of "D' and weep. An #EMT who doesn't have health #insurance who nevertheless is so committed to helping others in emergency health situations that he sticks with it. As Nathan Robinson says, "So don’t tell me this is a “good economy.” Don’t tell me this is a functional country. A system that treats D this way is totally dysfunctional."

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/dont-tell-me-this-is-a-functional-country

The #DogsOfMastodon thank @Rasta for posting this piece of perfection.

@AmandaMarcotte on "what one Texas law enforcement official called 'a little bit of an epidemic' of infant abandonment." It's a death cult.

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/02/newborns-are-being-left-in-dumpsters-in-texas-but-dont-seem-to-care/

#MAGA
#Texas
#Dobbs

@adammoe2022

Grief can be brutal. I like that expression "burned some gloomies."

Wishing you a good new year.

For heaven's sake (& your #brain, #heart, & #nerves), wear a #mask. It's ok to be the only one @ the store donning, let's call it, a white badge of courage! Why?
"Cognitive decline often associated w/long #COVID appears to affect all age groups, but older adults are particularly vulnerable to long-term cognitive impairments due to age-related neurodegenerative changes & immunosenescence (Arbula et al., 2024; Di Benedetto et al., 2017; Serrano Del Pueblo et al., 2024)."

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2024.1471192/full

@taylorlorenz on the refusal to say #misogyny: "The Gamergate playbook relies on leveraging networked harassment to launder bad faith attacks & smear campaigns through the mainstream media, in order to drive women & marginalized people out of positions of power by framing them as controversial, untrustworthy, or difficult. Lively's lawsuit details how this playbook was run on her." PS. the university presidents called in by #Congress in 12/23. All women. Why?

https://www.usermag.co/p/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-smear-campaign-misogyny-amber-heard-gamergate

#Lively

I don't often claim, with great pride, my #NJ origins but on this, I totally will!

https://www.advocate.com/education/new-jersey-book-bans

#Books
#BanTheBan

When healthcare promotes suffering: "Despite insanely higher spending, the U.S. has a lower life expectancy at birth, higher rates of chronic diseases, higher rates of avoidable or treatable deaths, and higher maternal and infant mortality rates than any of our peer nations."

https://hartmannreport.com/p/when-profits-kill-the-deadly-costs-e1a

#Healthcare
#Medicine

If the Institute for Scientific Information of Coffee says coffee is good for the brain, body, and soul (that last is my addition), it's got to be true.

https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-study-links-drinking-coffee-with-almost-2-extra-years-of-life?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

#Coffee
#PourOver