shekinahcancook

shekinahcancook, 10 months ago to mastodon

Bringing this long thread over from Universeodon...the first one will be visible, so click through for the rest.

🧵 I know a lot of you have not read any #holocaust memoirs. Last night I finished up a bound volume of "An Interrupted Life" & "Letters from Westerbork" which were the diary & correspondence of Etty Hillesum, who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/etty-hillesum-an-interrupted-life-and-letters-from-westerbork-etty-hillesum/630427?ean=9780805050875

In the first half of her diary she tells us of her wild romp through the men of her circle of friends. Anyone who thinks the US in the 60s invented sex is...wrong, lol.

Then Westerbork: a transit camp, a holding place while you waited to be shipped to the concentration camps.

In this thread I'm going to post some of the things I underlined for various reasons in the book.

Not everything is profound. It's just things I wanted to think about. I invite you to think about them with me.

#Mastodon #Jewniverse #bookstodon

1/68 - I have edited this to include the total, for if you get sidetracked.

shekinahcancook, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Every now and then I used to do a commentary on a book I was readying over on the dead bird site. I did one on my old instance, which I brought over. I think I'd like to do another one today. I just finished reading How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley. It's the new paperback edition with a new preface, and you can find it here:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/how-fascism-works-the-politics-of-us-and-them-jason-stanley/12073468

If mentioning Hitler annoys you, he does it a lot. But there are other points, too, that I underlined in the book.

Yes, I am one of those heathens that underlines, annotates, stars and exclamation points and even - gasp - dogears page corners of my books. I'm a visual learner. It's how I remember things and can find them later - by recognizing at a glance the pattern of markings on the page I'm looking for.

As always, not everything I underlined is profound or amazing, just things I wanted to think about or remember.

I invite you to think about them with me...

1/??

#ChristoFascism #WhiteNationalism #Authoritarianism #Politics #CivilRights

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago (edited 28 days ago) to kentucky

It is now illegal in Kentucky to expose the illegal treatment or processing of animals.

When exposing crime is punished, you are governed by criminals.

To clear up some confusion, the red legislature passed this Ag-Gag law, the governor vetoed it, then the legislature overturned the veto, with a few dissenting votes - but not enough to stop the overturn. So the Ag-Gag law is now adopted.

#Agriculture #Whistleblower #AnimalWelfare #Kentucky #KySucks #RedStateHellhole

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago to music

Music is making a comeback...

From the ChartR newsletter:
"The days of checking overplayed CDs for scratches, using a pencil to fix an unspooled tape cassette, or saving up for that state-of-the-art Walkman might seem as alien to contemporary music listeners as gathering around the gramophone, but it’s hard to overstate how much change the music industry has endured in recent decades.

Vinyl’s dominance in the 1970s...was an era of music-listening that is now heavily romanticized... even by Gen Z. But, if necessity is the mother of invention, convenience is surely a close relative, with music lovers keen to take their favorite tracks with them, and 12-inch records offering little in the way of portability. Smaller cassettes became the on-the-go option, only for CDs, offering the same flexibility with better sound quality, to displace the cassette in the 1980s — ushering in the industry’s golden age & eventually accounting for 89% of revenue at its peak in 1999."

#Music #Vinyl #Streaming

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago to music

Though I have a few vinyl records, a handful or so, I don't have a record player. What I do have is tons of CDs that I now can't play in the car because the tech bros who design cars now think everybody is willing to either listen to commercials or fork over money every month to creeps like spotify. And I will do neither.

It is ridiculous in this day and age to have to haul a CD player to my car and jerry-rig a connection to the audio input like it's 1995, but here we are.

#Music #Car #Cd #Vinyl

shekinahcancook, 11 months ago to random

Christianity does not have the right to decide for everyone else what is acceptable clothing, social or sexual relationships, culture, beliefs, or lifestyle.

Christianity only has the right to tell their own cult members what to do or not do.

Legislating religious beliefs is unconstitutional, period.

Legislating christian religious beliefs about abortion, lgbtq, women's rights, or anything else is a violation of my 1st amendment right to freedom of religious practice.

It is also a violation of the UN Charter of Human Rights - especially prohibitions against forced pregnancy.

No theocracy in America.

#Abortion #FreedomOfReligion #WomensRights #NoTheocracy #TheNewInquisition

shekinahcancook, 5 months ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

It's not about Biden, it's about not being forced to live in a taliban style afghanistan of our own, manifesting in the form of a MAGA & QAnon controlled US govt.

A future America where women have no rights. Where women are livestock. Where every bit of their flimsy education tells girls they must be sold off by their parents in marriage (as young as 10* years old, since republicans oppose child bride laws) and forced to give birth against their will over & over until they die, as required by law.

No career, no skills.

Where women's only way out is to commit suicide, since divorce and independence are illegal.

We have less than a year now before we will have voted either to support the legal framework that says religions can't impose their beliefs on people who are not members of their cult, or we will be in the position to have to wage war against a white-nationalist christo-fascist govt.

That's where we are, class, whether you want to be or not.

*per the Arizona civil war era law.

shekinahcancook, 5 months ago to random

We have now completed our annual rewatch party of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings extended version.

We've done this since the third LOTR movie came out on DVD, and added the Hobbit when they came out. We still watch them on DVDs.

I still cry at the sad parts, even after all these years.

shekinahcancook, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to geopolitics

By refusing to tax corporations, and refusing to raise the cap on income that is taxable for Social Security, the republicans are purposefully trying to bankrupt the US.

Corporate taxes should be at least as much as individual income taxes, if not moreso.

And there is absolutely no excuse for cutting social safety net programs when corporations clearly are not paying anywhere near their fair share of taxes. Not even close.

It's a scam.

#Economy #Taxes #EatTheRich

shekinahcancook, 10 days ago to emacstory

Jews from Arab lands are the missing piece of the Israeli-Palestinian discourse by American Syrian Jew Lisa Sayegh May 7, 2024

"...Over the past years, I have often been frustrated when I find people do not understand the trauma of the 700,000 Jews from all over the Middle East who were violently expelled from their countries in 1948 and how it resonates today. Pro-Palestinian activists who call out Israel as a “European settler colonial project” omit a critical part of the story that calls into question their claim. They ignore the Mizrahi majority in Israel who are descendants of Jews expelled from Arab lands when Israel was declared a state..."

https://www.jta.org/2024/05/07/ideas/jews-from-arab-lands-are-the-missing-piece-of-the-israeli-palestinian-discourse

#Mazeldon #Jewniverse #JFedi #JewishHistory #MENA #JewishWomen

shekinahcancook, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Why I hate my job reason 304589: Meeting today was supposed to be a quick hour of training a women on how to use a spreadsheet to make 990 / GAAP compliant bookkeeping tabs.

She showed up with a brand new computer than had no software on it except the operating system. The org does not have money to subscribe to anything -at all- so it was 2 hours of hunting down and installing various freeware, then another hour and 15 of showing her how to use the spreadsheet (which I had thankfully prepared in advance, except for her org's particular programming, which we added). In the process of doing her Jan - March 2023 bank recons, I realize the org has a Cash App acct which she didn't mention, and which now has to have its own recon tab, too. So we backtrack to recon Jan-Mar Cash App. And she doesn't have receipts for many things and has no idea what they were for. And the lag between initiating an xfer and her bank getting it...well, let's just say it was a long day.

Now shabbat dinner is nachos.

shekinahcancook, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to kentucky

And just so you're sure who's buttering their bread, the christo-fascist Kentucky senate has passed a law prohibiting any state agencies from requiring electric cars instead of fossil fuel pollution engines.

What a surprise. [not]

You would think after both Mayfield and West Liberty were wiped off the map by freak tornadic storms, and numerous places in the south eastern hills washed away by consecutive years of "500 year" floods, they'd get a clue.

But no. After they kill all non-christians, re-enslave people of color, and destroy the planet, white republican jesus is going to wag his magic dick and make it all better aright?

#Kentucky #Sustainability #BigOil #ClimateCrisis

shekinahcancook, 2 months ago to random

Since Avast has been caught red handed selling user data, what security software is everyone using? I need to switch to something else.

shekinahcancook, 6 months ago to random

I spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing my workroom upstairs to get as much stuff off the floor as possible, organizing shelves, drawers, and cabinets. Everything looks nice. But the point of doing this was to have a roomba type vacuum. I got the shark model at Costco last week. And today I was finally ready to set it up...only to have Google play refuse to install the app on my tablet, saying it's"not compatible" - which is absolute bull malarkey. Aside from the fact that there is absolutely no reason that a fucking vacuum cleaner should require internet, I don't put apps on my phone, period. So now it's boxed up and is going back to Costco tomorrow.

Note to developers. I will dump your product. Stop with the unnecessary crap.

shekinahcancook, 20 days ago to internet

Why enshittification of the internet is progressing so quickly - options are being destroyed one by one as monopoly power exerts itself.

"...So where have the missing companies gone? A 2023 paper by a trio of academics suggests a fairly straightforward answer: the Magnificent Seven ate them. Or at least a lot of them..."

https://sherwood.news/markets/the-number-of-public-companies-has-fallen-fast/

#Internet #BigTech #Technology #TechBros

shekinahcancook, 3 days ago to Economics

Markets - Where did all the stocks go?
Public Companies In Decline

The number of public companies has fallen fast by Matt Phillips, David Crowther 4/28/24

"...After analyzing the effects of mergers, private-equity investment, and regulatory costs, the paper suggests that M&A is the main culprit. (Though they do theorize that higher costs associated with regulation could be a less important contributing factor.)

“Mergers seem to be the biggest driver of this trend,” Ali Sanati told Sherwood. Sanati is a finance professor at the American University in Washington, DC, and a coauthor of the 2023 paper.

The authors categorized mergers according to various financial metrics, noting that mergers motivated around financing and innovation “are the ones that effectively reduce the number of U.S. listings.”

So, they got eaten.

https://sherwood.news/markets/the-number-of-public-companies-has-fallen-fast/

#Economics #PredatoryCapitalism #EatTheRich #StockMarket

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago to sustainability

Riane Eisler: “Partnership and Domination Systems”

By Nate Hagens, originally published by The Great Simplification March 27, 2024

"...What we value at the individual and family level directly translates to the way we frame our governance systems – societies that emphasize empathy and caring also implement the same types of policies and values. How could we foster the more cooperative side of our humanity across all scales to create empowered communities and balanced decision making? What societies – past and present – lean towards a partnership paradigm and what benefits do their people receive? Is it possible to move away from violence and control oriented systems and into ones that value wide boundaries of empathy and understand the vital nature of care work?"

They had me at "chaos theory" which is the last item in the show's table of contents, at 1:06:03 if you're curious, lol.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-03-27/riane-eisler-partnership-and-domination-systems/

#Sustainability #Cooperation #Egalitarianism #Governance

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago to random

San Nicolas Island
Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California

A stranded woman lived alone on this remote island for 18 years, inspiring the great children's novel "Island of the Blue Dolphins."

"...she was...a very happy & pleasant person. Around 50 years old & in good health when she was brought to Santa Barbara Mission... She could not communicate directly because no one was left who spoke her language. Her tribe had died out by that point [from being forced to leave their homes]...

Sadly, she only lasted 7 weeks at the mission, the change in diet having resulted in her contracting dysentery. She was christened Juana Maria shortly before she died, and buried in the Nidever family plot at the mission cemetery. Her dress and other belongings she brought with her from the island have been lost..."

This was one of my absolute childhood favorites. I'm sorry to hear her fate at the hands of christians - "change in diet" here means "unsanitary conditions."

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/san-nicolas-island

#Bookstodon

shekinahcancook, 29 days ago (edited 29 days ago) to Economics

Cocoa Prices have Gone Nuts
Millie Giles & David Crowther
April 19, 2024

Cocoa prices are breaking records on an almost daily basis — with cocoa futures closing at (another) all-time high of $11,020 per metric ton yesterday.

That’s up 158% since the start of the year, and over 4x on the typical prices seen in 2022 — as crop production continues to fall short of demand.

Major cocoa-producing nations like the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which between them grow about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, have seen excessive tree failure due to disease, changing weather patterns, and hot, dry conditions causing devastating droughts.

Consumers are starting to see the effects of the largest cocoa supply deficit in over 60 years: “shrinkflation” & reduced-cocoa recipes, and Hershey stock was recently downgraded.

Tthe International Cocoa Organization expects production to lag behind demand by 374,000 tons for the 2023-24 season.

https://sherwood.news/markets/cocoa-hits-usd11-000/

#Economics #FoodSecurity #Inflation #Cocoa #Cooking

shekinahcancook, 22 days ago to kentucky

Emboldened by the fascist Ky GOP imposing their religious beliefs on women and LGBTQ folks, now magats are harassing businesses of people who follow different spiritual paths.

This was never going to end with abortion and trans people - you know that, right?

They intend to eliminate anyone and everyone who will not bow to their disgusting cult. Today it's crystals and nature religions. Tomorrow it's Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sufis, and Judaism.

These nutjobs don't care about constitutional rights and are fine with using police state violence to enforce their cult's backward and barbaric beliefs. And if that doesn't work, they're fine with murder, arson, and assault.

https://www.lex18.com/news/covering-kentucky/clark-county-business-accused-of-witchcraft-owner-says-its-not-true

#Kentucky #KySucks #RedStateHellhole #GOP #ChristoFascism #ReligiousFreedom #CivilRights #Pagan #Spirituality #Meditation #Crystals #Tarot

shekinahcancook, 20 days ago to random

Now I'm thinking I'm the guy who gets killed by some monster!
#GalaxyQuestToots

shekinahcancook, 18 days ago to random

@Cbsnews

I have yet to see a single news story about Project 2025. Are you complicit in this plot? Why are you not reporting on it?

shekinahcancook, 16 days ago to Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Little-Known Original Drawings for the First Edition of “The Hobbit” By Maria Popova

"...People have celebrated Tolkien as a writer for years — you haven’t been able to get away from him since all the books of the century polls. But The Lord of the Rings has always been the focus since it was published in 1954 — it’s a much more grown-up, significant book. It has overshadowed The Hobbit as a more old-fashioned, children’s book, which has become known in the context of The Lord of the Rings. The anniversary allows us to move the spotlight back on to the book which started it all.

A rare piece of cross-disciplinary creativity from the mind of one of modern history’s greatest creators, The Art of the Hobbit is equal parts literary treasure and treat of art, exploring the notion of the author as designer — a particularly timely concept in the age of self-publishing and disciplinary cross-pollination in the making of books..."

https://www.themarginalian.org/2011/11/01/art-of-the-hobbit/

#Tolkien #Hobbit #LOTR

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago to history

The Mysterious Dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire

The first of many of these puzzling objects was unearthed almost three centuries ago, and we still don’t know what they were for.

by Frank Jacobs, Big Think May 12, 2023

"In the first episode of Buck Rogers, the 1980s television series about an astronaut from the present marooned in the 25th century, our hero visits a museum of the future. A staff member brandishes a mid-20th-century hair dryer. “Early hand laser,” he opines. As an observation of how common knowledge gets lost over time, it’s both funny and poignant. Because our museums also stock items from the past that completely baffle the experts..."

Well, at least they didn't think the hairdryer was for a fertility ritual.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dodecahedrons-roman-empire

#History #Archaeology

shekinahcancook, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to LGBTQ

These deranged people are the fundamentalist #ChristoFascists intending to impose #TheNewInquisition rule over the rest of us, to eliminate all #WomensRights like in Afghanistan, to execute #LGBTQ folks and #Atheists like Gaza and Iran, to bring back #Slavery like in Libya and Qatar, and make America a Saudi style ethno-state in the #WhiteNationalist flavor. They intend to turn all schools into #ForcedReligion hellholes and #Kidnap your kids if you dare to let them be themselves. They intend to deport #Immigrants and force the poor into servitude with no #MinimumWages or #WorkerProtections at all, including no #SocialSecurity or #Healthcare since only the rich deserve a decent life - their disgusting god told them so while they were here wallowing on the floor and babbling.

THIS IS OUR FUTURE IF MAGATS ARE NOT VOTED OUT AND KEPT OUT PERMANENTLY: rule by hateful misogynist nutjobs using POLICE STATE VIOLENCE to enforce their whackadoodle beliefs onto us.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ohqHvOoGyo