Notices by Robert Dale Parker (robertdaleparker@mstdn.social)

Elizabeth McClellan, an autistic poet, responds to RFK Jr.'s derogatory remarks about autism in Mother Jones.

"I am not only living evidence that someone can be autistic and a poet, I will challenge RFK Jr. to write a poem as good as me any day of the week, because I don’t think he can do it."

"What has he ever really done, other than have a last name?"

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/rfk-kennedy-hhs-autism-diagnoses-poet/

#Autism #Poetry #Bookstodon #Reading

Teacher in Idaho told she must remove sign saying "Everyone is welcome here" because it had images of hands with a variety of "skin tones."

School officials said "that it was not the message that was at issue, but rather the hands of different skin tones on the poster."

Sadly, we need to know about things like this so that we can oppose them & keep them from growing & reenforcing each other.

https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article301972094.html

#Racism #Education

So Musk is running SpaceX, and its rockets are crashing down. He's running Tesla, and its cars are crashing, and its stock is crashing too. He's running X, and—what a coincidence—today X is crashing. While he runs all those things, he's also running the US government—how's that going?

#ElonMusk #Musk #Tesla

See that sculpture behind Trump & Musk? That’s Winston Churchill, & Trump put it there. And see this photo of Churchill at the White House in WWII? He’s not wearing a suit.

Trump & Vance’s betrayal of Zelensky & democracy is as if Roosevelt had said to Churchill: sign a cease fire now & let Hitler & Mussolini keep all of Europe & in return we’ll stop helping you & you have to give us your coal reserves.

#Trump #Zelenskyy #Ukraine #Vance #Churchill

FIRE ELON MUSK

So the Washington Post refused a big ad that says FIRE ELON MUSK.

We wouldn't want that idea to get around, would we? So do not boost this post. Especially if you think having a Nazi-saluting co-president shredding the constitution and the economy for the sake of his own ego and his own economic thievery is just dandy.

https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/

TOMORROW, on Presidents' Day, "Not My President" protests in every US state. Look online to find yours. I'll be there!

(Not enough people know about these protests, so please boost/repost freely. Thx.)

For many years, I’ve had a beautiful copy of the first map of the United States, made in 1784 in French, from the Newberry Library, hanging on the wall. I face it every day as I sit at my desk. As you can see in this closeup photo, it says “GOLFE DU MEXIQUE.”

#Maps #Mexico #Libraries #GulfOfMexico

If Trump invades Greenland, wouldn't NATO be obligated to come to the defense of Greenland and Denmark?

#Trump #Greenland #Denmark #NATO

#SilentSunday

#SilentSunday

#Walking the (restored) #Prairie

We interrupt this week’s snowstorms to announce that my new book, The Literature of Extreme Poverty in the Great Depression, due out Jan 31, is now available online for free at most academic libraries, and until Feb 6 Chapter 1 is free online for everyone at https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/authors/promotion/9780197785065-chapter.pdf.

For a discount see https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/academic/pdf/authors/promotion/9780197785065-discount.pdf but the online version is free.

@LitStudies

#AmericanLiterature #Bookstodon #Fiction #Poetry #Poverty #Books

#SilentSunday

RIP Jimmy Carter.

Did you know that Jimmy Carter published poetry? Here's one of his poems that begins with words from Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up" and ends, we might say, by anticipating something akin to death:

https://poetryandplaces.com/2020/11/02/considering-the-void-by-jimmy-carter/

#JimmyCarter #Poetry

Now that Microsoft has made stealing your writing to train AI an almost unnoticeable default for Microsoft Word, here's how you can turn it off.

https://medium.com/illumination/ms-word-is-using-you-to-train-ai-86d6a4d87021

#FootpathFriday

I ended my subscription to the Washington Post. Bezos has trashed things I cherish: bookstores and responsible journalism. Journalism and democracy need to uphold each other. Without democracy, journalism is at risk, and without responsible journalism, democracy is at risk.

Vote!

#WashingtonPost #Journalism #Bookstores #Books #Bookstodon #Election2024 #KamalaHarris #Trump #Democracy #WaPo

9 grumpy critiques of US election coverage:

With apologies to those, especially outside the US, who are sick of US election coverage. Aren’t we all. It will get worse before it gets better.

1) These 7 states will decide the results. No. Every state counts. If you take out any state, you change the calculation.

1 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

2) The American people chose Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. No. A frighteningly large number of US citizens don’t even vote. Most US voters chose Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Who gets the most votes won’t determine who wins in 2024. It should, but it won’t.

2 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

3) This election is really close, or Harris or Trump is leading in this state or that state. No. We haven’t started counting the votes, and most voters haven’t voted yet. Right now, the polls are close, not the election.

3 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

#FensterFreitag #WindowFriday

#Chicago street scene