Notices by Diligence Jones (deliachristina@sfba.social), page 6

Why do universities have endowments and investment portfolios? Love this young woman's precise summary.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLphcaXo/

This is why the Dems and Black folks are going to need to have a conversation soon.

Because this is NOT it. Effing tone deaf.

#BlackLivesMatter #ACAB #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi

@Quenby

This whole discussion unfolding on different platforms has been utterly faaaascinating to watch.

Men going, But safety!
And women saying, Exactly. Bear.

For EIGHT years, America experienced cognitive dissonance. The world it knew seemed to be on the brink of whatever the hell this was. New knowledge was dropping, making half this country uncomfortable. A Black family moved into the neighborhood. Black Twitter became a thing. People were learning about daps. Cops weren't your friend. Karens were suddenly visible in the wild.

(I mean, Black folks always been knew about Karen. We
just called her Miss Sally.)

And after those 8 years, America breathed a raggedy sigh of relief and basically did a wilding. They got to' up from the flo' up.

And it's all because they couldn't deal with a Black president.

I swear, having a Black president literally made America go insane.

When I think about how utterly wiiiiild everything is, I think, Hm, what was the catalyst? What was the thing that made half this country go completely bonkers?

Barack Obama.

Walking Benson with a cane, a review:

5/10 Do not recommend. Hmph.

I know how to walk with a cane thanks to an intense recovery from a bad accident a decade ago.

But *Benson* has no idea what the hell he's doing. He's already a sidewalk rambler when it comes to our walks (hence my lower back strain and sciatica pain, leading to the use of a cane). Add a cane and he's throwing off my rhythm.

At one point I looked down and he was *between* me and my cane on the left side. Looking up at me for a treat. Thank goodness it's one of those standing canes with a wide steady foot.

I really have no effs to give now. I'm stumping around with my cane, my velcro shoes, and my big boi dog.

#BensonUpdate

So last night Bestie came over for a drink while I was in the throes of work-related Red Zone and we had this interesting exchange:

Her: So you think it's a genocide?

Me: Absolutely. They're finding mass graves at hospitals.

Her: Well, I read that those could be old gravesites.

Me: Bodies dumped in a pile, under waste, without identification, with zip ties and in medical clothing? Ok.

[notice I don't get into a War of Citations. that's a waste of time.]

Her: It just seems really complicated.

[ah. 'complicated.']

Me: Hm. Well, I believe the UN Special Rapporteur, that woman from Italy, said all the material conditions for genocide have been met.

[drop the expertise hammer and let it lay there.]

Her: [after a pause] Yeah. It's a genocide.

---

When we have exchanges like this (and we had been talking about how we're so happy to see the campus protests spreading,) I feel that Bestie is trying desperately to hold onto the idea that Israel is the Good Guy.

I feel for her.

Dude on street corner with a tablet: Do you care about children?

Me: [leaving the office] No.

Him: You don't care about children??

Me: No.

Him: Wowww. That says alot about you.

Me: Dude, it's Tuesday.

My filter is gone. Even for charity fundraisers.

@FlashMobOfOne

I just like seeing the Bad Guy Billionaire Bro and his crony get his ass kicked.

Only going to watch the last 20 min of the remake of Roadhouse.

I mean, that's really all you need, right?

#1dayoff

#MutualAidRequest

This city is so mean.

Our amazing team assistant drives 3+ hours into SF to be in office a couple times a month. Last night, while she was parked in a lot by the office, her car was broken into and vandalized.

Please share or contribute, whichever.

https://gofund.me/e591ceae

Getting older needs a handbook.

Like, my body really does not move and recover the way it used to. I never noticed that my gait is all effed up. I never paid attention to my hips and back (outside of shenanigans). I never worried before about mobility and about how to keep it...mobile.

Youth enables ableism. You just think everything is going to work the way it always worked.

But getting older ...oof. If the body is a temple, this temple needs some assistance. The roof is leaking, the gutters are clogged, the doors are hanging wrong, and the hinges are all squeaking.

It's a paradigm shift.

#Aging #MiddleAgedStiffness

CW: The absolute carnage and orgy of death at al Shifa hospital.

What is happening is not complex. Slaughter, massacre, killing is pretty straightforward.

Ceasefire is not enough. Sanctions.
https://jacobin.com/2024/04/al-shifa-hospital-siege-gaza-massacre

They killed SEVEN aid workers. SEVEN. Did you see that picture? A burnt hole right over the passenger seat. An incinerated shell. People bringing FOOD to a desperate starving population trapped in the middle of a gauntlet.

What. The. Hell.

#GazaGenocide

About that #ceasefire veto vote by the Security Council:

The resolution was vetoed because the US-drafted language was weak ass baby shit. (That's the technical diplomatic term.)

There's a stronger, more explicit draft in process and the U.S. continues to demur, saying it will disrupt delicate negotiations. Bish, when your closest ally has become a genocidal murder bot, and your reelection hinges on turning the political tide in your favor, delicacy flies out the window.

I do not believe *anything* this admin is saying about negotiations as long as it keeps supplying aid and comfort to Israel. Not one word.

Good luck to Joe. #FreePalestine

https://www.barrons.com/news/un-security-council-vote-on-new-gaza-ceasefire-text-postponed-to-monday-diplomats-e2f0fe6c

Oof. The Russia spokesperson was not fooling around. From the media statement:

"The speaker for the Russian Federation countered that the United States, four times “in cold blood”, cast a veto in the Security Council, with repeated justifications. “Now the US representative — without blinking — has been asserting that Washington has finally begun to recognize the need for a ceasefire,” he stated — a sluggish thought process that has cost the lives of 32,000 peaceful Palestinians. The “typical hypocritical spectacle” means the United States has been “trying to sell a product” to the Council and the entire international community — with “philosophical passages about moral imperatives”. However, to save the lives of peaceful Palestinian civilians, “this is not enough”, he stressed."

Slap.

Here's the media statement from the UN on the vote. I like how it spills the tea. Diplomatically, of course.

https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15637.doc.htm

@shoq
I'm an active user of TT and extremely media literate. And I've been engaged with social media since the beginning so I'm no clueless teen on the interwebs.

I like TT. And I find it fascinating.

I originally got on it for excel tips+shortcuts. Weird but true. Its randomness confused me for a bit until I figured out the FYP algo and in the same way I mastered and curated my Fediverse timeline, I got the hang of TT. My content is political, recipes, feminist, diy, that hot guy chopping wood, Black folks being awesome, Gaza news, and Drew Afuolo roasting misogynists.

TT like other social media has immense potential both beneficial and destructive. I'm fascinated by the way it moves like a murmuration of its users. And that's the fine point: users.

The algorithm learns very quickly and *efficiently* from its users. Problematic content being served up again and again on a person's FYP is....telling.

I legit would have let Israel's nonsense slip past me as more 'well, that's just the middle east being wild again' if it had not been for creators I follow on Tik Tok stitching Palestinian voices.

That *alone* politicized me. It opened up a curiosity about what else I had overlooked or ignored. In one month I went from proZionist Baptist babe to 'settler colonial ethnostates can catch it.'

I went from a Fine, Whatever, Biden-voter to GoodLuckJoeHopeTheseOtherFolksVoteForYouCuzIAint.

That's what TikTok (and JSTOR) did.

I'm not the only one.