Toots 🦣 from 02/05 to 02/09

As discussed previously, on Fridays, I present my weekly social media roundups. Note that toots of articles generally include header images from the articles, which I don’t include here unless their creators happen to have released them for use under a free license, and I notice. Most have not, or I don’t notice. But I now add my commentary here, where I don’t feel restricted by message length.

Also, I don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:01 – Mon 05 February 2024

Image Not Shown: Several people marching in a protest holding placards, one of which reads, You don't have to be Jewish to march against antisemitism

When is criticism of Israel antisemitic? A scholar of modern Jewish history explains from The Conversation

if Jews or Jewish institutions are held responsible for Israeli actions or are expected to take a stand one way or another regarding them, again all three definitions agree this “crosses the line” because it is based on the myth of a global Jewish conspiracy.

Hashtags: #Israel #Gaza #Antisemitism

I always try to tread especially carefully, here, because I’ve had the privilege of knowing quite a few wonderful people who either came from or moved to Israel, and don’t want to try to emulate their own criticisms of their government, while also making sure that I don’t indirectly make their lives worse. This article feels simplistic, to me, but I’d rather talk about something bare-bones than not have the discussion at all.

12:01 – Mon 05 February 2024

Quoted on Mastodon

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything… that smacks of discrimination or slander.

Mary McLeod Bethune

Hashtags: #Quotes #BlackHistory

9:06 – Tue 06 February 2024

Image Not Shown: Aedes aegypti mosquito head close-up

Mosquito protein could block dengue virus infection from Futurity

Further examination of the molecular interactions between the cuticle protein and dengue virus prompted the researchers to suggest that it blocks dengue virus infection using a two-pronged approach.

Hashtags: #DengueFever #Mosquitoes

I look forward to seeing this research put into action.

12:04 – Tue 06 February 2024

Quoted on Mastodon

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others… One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Hashtags: #Quotes #BlackHistory

9:07 – Wed 07 February 2024

Image Not Shown: Razor wire along a river bank

The Real Border Crisis: Texas vs. the Constitution from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Houston public media KUHF said this “could be the beginning of a constitutional crisis.” University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck said in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle that Abbott’s position is a “dangerous misreading” of the Constitution.

Hashtags: #Immigration #Texas

While I don’t expect this to end in another Civil War, because the people behind these acts don’t seem to have any actual spine in them, let alone fight, they certainly want their fans to see them as trying to start a Civil War, and they have four Supreme Court Justices cheering them on.

12:03 – Wed 07 February 2024

Quoted on Mastodon

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

Carter Woodson

Hashtags: #Quotes #BlackHistory

9:05 – Thu 08 February 2024

Content Warning: US Politics, Trump

Image Not Shown: Haley speaking at an event

Nikki Haley’s a great reminder of how much Trump hates women from Daily Kos

Trump also can’t seem to distinguish between the many women he despises, like they’ve all melded together in his thick brain.

Hashtags: #USPol #GOP #Haley #Trump

I wonder what Haley has in mind for her endgame, here. She has to know that she can’t win anything in this campaign. At one point, it looked like her goal was to test the theory that you “become white” in the United States by dumping on Black people, but that only ever blows up in the face of individuals. But the longer she stays in the primaries, the more Trump and the RNC need to spend to beat her, and the less coherent he looks.

Don’t get me wrong, here. I doubt that she has the country’s best interests at heart, but if she manages to tank an increasingly fascist party, I’ll at least say something nice about her on occasion…

12:02 – Thu 08 February 2024

Quoted on Mastodon

The present attitude on the part of white women to ignore or undervalue the colored woman, or to accept Negro women who are picked by Tom, Dick or Harry, forebodes evil and ill for both groups.

Nannie Helen Burroughs

Hashtags: #Quotes #BlackHistory

9:02 – Fri 09 February 2024

Image Not Shown: The back of a person looking at a display of diapers, while a baby looks at the camera

It’s Not ‘Inflation’ — We’re Just Getting Ripped Off. Here’s Proof from OtherWords

In fact, their own executives are openly bragging about how they’re going to “expand margins” on earnings calls. Procter & Gamble predicted $800 million in windfall profits as input costs decline. Kimberly-Clark’s CEO said the company has “a lot of opportunity” to expand margins over time.

Hashtags: #Inflation #Capitalism #PriceGouging

I’ve posted many articles about the price-hikes since they started, all saying this, but I appreciate having the numbers to point to.

12:05 – Fri 09 February 2024

Quoted on Mastodon

It’s voting rights or it’s the filibuster. It’s LGBTQ+ rights or it’s the filibuster. It’s union rights or it’s the filibuster. It’s civil rights or it’s the filibuster. It’s our rights or it’s the filibuster. The choice is easy.

Cori Bush

Hashtags: #Quotes #BlackHistory

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, I drop any additional articles that didn’t fit into the one-article-per-day week, but too weird or important to not mention, here.

Image Not Shown: Screenshot from YouTube video ‘Crown jewels looted by British soldiers returned to Ghana on loan’ by BBC News

Ghanaians’ reactions to the UK loaning back treasures it looted from them from Global Voices

She said the loan was “a good starting point” on the anniversary of the looting and “a sign of some kind of healing and commemoration for the violence that happened.” According to a report by the Conversation, the looting happened in Kumasi during the third and fourth Anglo-Ashanti wars (1873–74 and 1895-96). This plundering was not only an opportunistic act but also had a political purpose, aiming to humiliate the inhabitants of the Asante kingdom, as highlighted by both the BBC and the Conversation.

Seriously, as much as I loved looking at them growing up, I feel like permanent museum collections from other cultures should represent a source of massive embarrassment, at this point in history.

Content Warning: US Politics, Fascism

Image Not Shown: Texas National Guard soldiers watch as migrants try to crawl underneath the razor wire after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States, 17 December 2023, Eagle Pass, Texas

Yes, Republican states are now starting to emulate the Civil War-era south from openDemocracy

Not to put too fine a point on it, but these kinds of actions smack of the nullification of federal law that southern politicians employed in the years preceding the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865. To make matters worse, the Republican governors of 25 other states, including Indiana…have signed a statement in support of Texas’s actions that accuses the Biden administration of “attacking” Texas and invokes the notion of state sovereignty that southern states used as a “justification” for secession when they formed the Confederate States of America.

You can largely copy my comment above on the FAIR article down here, if you need me to say something…

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Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.