These kinds of things give me hope

watching this actually made me cry a little. i've long held that i think the support for anti-trans policies is a mile wide and an inch deep, and the majority of people who would oppose our existence in a survey or a ballot box do so out of ignorence in the truest sense of the word. Do so because they have little to no experience of us, do so because they don't see us in their communities, do so because we are not a part of their daily lives, and that if they were to see us there in front of them day in and day out, they would not so easily cast aside our rights and our humanity in favor of what they hear about us from conservative media outlets. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say that, and seeing such a perfect example of it, especially in so dark a time, brings me to tears.

@bunnydracula @thatdiabolicalfeminist @quecksilvereyes @save-mohamed-family

A hero without a cape

Her name is Theresa Kachindamoto, and she is a senior chief - political leader of a region with a population of about 900,000 people.

She didn’t run for election; she was appointed, without her knowledge, while she was living and working in a completely different part of the country. She just received a call one day telling her to come back to her childhood home, because she was in charge now.

So she did; and when she arrived, she discovered widespread sexual abuse of children. She browbeat 50 uncooperative local leaders into accepting her decision to annul all the marriages. She then fired four of them when they continued to allow children to be married off in their areas. She still faces widespread opposition from parents who consider it their right to sexually abuse their daughters if they want to; but Kachindamoto very evidently does not give a fuck, and is continuing to use political and legal means to protect children in the region.

She’s not just an anonymous do-gooder; she’s an effective political leader despite incredibly difficult circumstances. Theresa Kachindamoto.

[Image Description: a twitter post from user Al Jazeera English @ AJEnglish that reads “This woman has broken up 850 child marriages and banned sexual initiation camps in Malawi”

Below the text is a picture of Theresa Kachindamoto. She is a dark skinned woman with short hair. She is outside and smiling. End ID]

got worried checking the dates on this post and seeing 2016, knowing how risky this kind of political activism is

good news: Kachindamoto is still in office, and last year (2024) she received honorary doctorates from 2 universities and was given the African Genius Award 🙏

DOGE just froze funding to vital Federal and Indigenous conservation programs devoted to supporting the very delicate and tenuous existence of the black-footed ferret.

I fell in love with these animals as a kid traveling to our National Parks. Their rarity and ferocity made me sharply aware, even as a child, of just how much of a responsibility we have toward our environment. I can't bear the thought of them being a fucking casualty of Trump and Musk.

Look at them! They do war dances.

Okay I don't want to end this on doom and gloom, so I'm also going to add that the Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance was one of the indigenous-lead organizations who were supposed to receive a $1.1 million dollar grant that has since been frozen. But they do have a website and they do accept donations.

They are currently doing an emergency fundraiser!! Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance (BNGA) is raising $50,000 in emergency funds to support Tribal efforts to recover black-footed ferrets

They are 34% to their goal with 11 days left!

43%! Come on y'all!

In case anyone finds it helpful because mobility aids are horrifically expensive and inaccessible…

And for those people who have access to mobility devices but might benefit from a second chair they can abuse without risking expensive damage…

Erik Kondo has made a website, Open Source Innovations, that details plans for DIY wheelchairs. These wheelchairs can be made from common materials like wood, plastic, and pvc. They are lightweight and can be custom fit to the user allowing from the same degree of movement you would get from a custom chair. And they are durable and easily repairable. (he has been stress testing his latest design by dropping it down stairs, dropping it out of a car, launching it across a driveway, and throwing it off a deck). Its 12lbs and I think he said its was in the $200 ish range for parts.

He also is working on cheap, open source, accessible designs for beach chairs, off road chairs, motorized attachments (think smart drive), and so on. Plus he skateboards in his wheelchair. Cool dude, helpful info, pass it on.

It's incredibly sad people have to resort to this, but it's a damn good resource. Use it. Spread awareness. Maybe one day people with physical disabilities won't need DIYs like this. But until then, reblog and share.

My name is Lew

I am an elder criminal defense lawyer. I have been practicing criminal law since 1981 in California. I have been keeping journals since September 1977. I began posting some of those journal entries, plus thoughts and notes about current times on February 5, 2023.

I came out as a gay man in 1984. I was married to a woman then. I left the marriage after telling her I was gay.

My younger sister, Zoe, who I was very close to, died rather suddenly of pancreatic cancer in May of 2023. She gave me permission to blog the last two weeks of her life. Those blogs run from May 1 to May 14, 2023 in my blog's archives.

I journaled my journey through the turbulent 1980's and 1990's. During that time, I was pretty vocal about being gay. And, I paid a steep price for it professionally and socially. I volunteered to help people with aids through their illness and death through two Aids support agencies. . And, I also documented the 12 year relationship I had with my gay partner, Jim, who died in 2009.

I wrote pretty much daily about these events and many others. I never intended for the entries to be made public. But, I now think they should be, as they weave what I believe to be our common story of what it's been like to be out, human and gay in the past four decades.

And, as I journaled, I developed ideas and ways to journal and wrote about them in the journals. I discuss the impact journaling has had on me. And, the amazing revelation reviewing journal entries for the blog of just how incredible our lives have been. Memory fades. The journal details do not.

Now during the Trump -Musk deepening dictatorship and authoritarian state, I journal thoughts on resistance and thoughts on making it through these dark times. Just as others on Tumblr are doing. Making Tumblr a great resistance community gathering spot.

If you have ever been tempted by a Paleozoic Pal, like a a stuffed trilobite or a full size eurypterid body pillow, now's the time to buy one, before they and a really lovely little museum are gone for good 😭😭😭

This was the museum I went to often in my childhood. I'm no longer able to visit unless I visit family, but this place holds a special place in my heart.

As stated in the article, they hold around 7 million artifacts- many of which are orphaned fossils, with the museum taking in collections that otherwise would have been trashed.

Please consider buying a Paleozoic Pal, but I'll also leave a direct donation link as well.

THE GIANT EURYPTERID BODY PILLOW IS BACK IN STOCK

I JUST WENT INTO A FUGUE STATE AND BOUGHT ME A 16 INCH CUDDLE BUDDY WITH PLATED TEETH!! DUNKIE, MY BELOVED!!

Screeching aside, anyone who can afford to, go look through their shop! They got clothes, and cute gifts, and books and all kinds of other awesome stuff! Ye, the shipping sucks, but we need to keep our museums alive! (the good ones, not the British Museum of Thievery XP)

HE’S HERE! MY BIG BOY IS HERE!! (And yes he is my BIG boy despite only being 16 inches, you shush!)

He took nearly a month to get here, but that’s because of ALL THE ORDERS THEY’VE BEEN GETTING! OVER 1800 ORDERS! This is why I love the online community!!

Now if you don’t mind I’m going to tuck Duncan into my sweater and go work on the piles of stuff I still have to do 😅

For anyone curious what's happening with the PRI they're digging themselves out! An anonymous donor gave them $1 mn which they used to secure a stay on the forclosure for the rest of the year and they're approximately a third of the way to buying their way out of the mortgage.

More commissions! :D

My Ko-fi - Commission info

Update: they put the entire staff on admin leave (which is like a soft firing) so the grants to local libraries are effectively stopped and will likely illegally be cancelled. Call your congressperson.

unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.

bonus it ALSO fills that dopamine hit of in-person shopping. “oh I didn’t go in looking for this but hmm, I’m tempted… I can’t resist… oh ho ho I have made some irresponsible decisions at the library today [carrying my stack of ten random books]” and then it doesn’t even matter if you don’t like them because a) free b) you’re gonna give them back anyway

Librarian here! Please please please please PLEASE do this! We don’t have any way to know if you read them, and we don’t care! We’re happy to see those books go out because that helps our stats. And that affects how much money we can get.

So grab that silly paperback romance, and maybe this new YA fantasy, oh and check for the new movies too! And don’t forget to check Libby and hoopla for music and ebooks and e-audio.

Have a book you love and want to make sure stays in circulation, especially in America with bans and challenges looming?

Check it out. You don't have to re-read it.

More commissions i've been working on :D

Commission info - My Ko-fi

Today is my birthday what the fuck

A great gift would be some reblogs for my art :D

(commission but one of my favorite newest pieces)

and here's a classic of mine, i have to redraw it fr

hey hi hello so as the US goes through this ~ hostile government takeover ~ Trump signed an executive order last week to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). On Thursday (3/20) DOGE attempted to quietly raid IMLS but staff there posted to reddit and the unwanted media attention led them to put a pause on the takeover, for now. Trump replaced the director of IMLS with Keith Sonderling, who very openly stated that his goals are to "promote patriotism" and "American exceptionalism". We worry grants will be more dependent on whether your institution supports DEI [or anyone who isn't a white hetero cis amab].

A lot of libraries depend on IMLS grants! If they go away we will lose librarians and libraries may close, or at least significantly decrease their services. This will affect funding for technology classes, free resources for the blind, summer reading, databases, free internet access assistance, and interlibrary loans among other things. As the administration also targets social security, immigration, and other safety nets, libraries are attempting to fill the gap for the public, and things will get much harder without reliable funding.

This is also IN ADDITION to the administration calling book bans "fake" and some states attempting to pass laws to criminalize librarians, with fears in the library world that they will also try to make it a federal crime to promote or otherwise provide access to "inappropriate materials" which have included books that promote "gender ideology" or basically any character that isn't a white heterosexual cis amab. That is one of the cornerstones of Project 2025. This IMLS takeover will only make things worse, and make it harder for people to access information.

Personally, we have been told by our director to be very careful and not talk about this while at work because of fears of retaliation, we have had several calls from the public to remove books with gay characters (we didn't), and as an adult services librarian, I am already seeing an impact on databases I help the public use. Medline Plus, the only free and easy-to-use medical encyclopedia for the public I have been able to find, is a US government website and already has warnings above certain pages about the "harms of gender ideology". This warning can be seen above pages on health disparities and abortion.

If you're so inclined and live in the US, the ALA put together a portal that makes it easy to email your reps with a script. You can find the portal here. I would also recommend investing in your local library, post on social media what services you use, sign up for a library card and see how many resources you can access for free. Many state library associations collect user stories of libraries so they can show their stakeholders they matter. Like my library, it is likely that staff have been warned not to discuss this at work because of fears of retaliation, so try not to talk to librarians about this at work.

General advocacy page:

Article from NPR about the takeover:

What happens if IMLS goes away:

A report on how much museums give back to the US economy:

An interactive map of what IMLS funds in the US:

Hat tip @eldriwolf !

The alt-right's foothold into Gen-Z is frustrating and I can see from over here how they're doing it.

You've got a generation of young-adults who are learning to be adults for the first time and for so many of them it sucks. It sucks to be in your first shitty apartment where things break, and to have your first shitty car that needs maintenance, and to be working a low-paying service or retail job where you get berated all day and barely scrape by. And you go home and you have taxes to figure out and electric bills to figure out and a screen on your phone to rot into to destress.

And this is men and women, equally, in this spot. But the alt-right messaging gets to tailor their approach to gender.

And hey women, yes you working a shitty job for shitty pay, overwhelmed by financial responsibilities and car repairs, what if you actually didn't need to do ANY of that? You don't need to. And you don't need to feel guilty about it. (You're not quitting, you're not being lazy), you actually are just embracing the chance to be exactly who an ideal woman should be. You should actually be beautiful, and demure, and barefoot in a sunny kitchen, glowing, pregnant, hearing the joyful sounds of your children while you bake a roast for your wonderful husband (strong, protective, loves you, handles the finances, handles the jobs, handles all the things you hate). OUR ancestors (don't mind the dogwhistle) did this for GENERATIONS, and modern society has failed you instead!

It's offering to break women out of all the parts of their real life that suck, and do it in a way that promises they're actually being better, being more admirable, more moral, more respectable, more correct, can feel good about, can feel proud about, as a Woman as Feminine as Mother as Goddess.

And the thing being promised does not need to actually reflect reality. It's a fantasy. It is not real. For every "beautiful demure barefoot" day, you'd be having another one covered in shit changing diapers of screaming infants with screaming children while your husband ignores you because it's Women's Work (take pride!) But that doesn't matter. It just needs to sound better than the reality they're living.

Then the men are targeted too. And it's the same in that it's getting to them by appealing to pride in their gender, but the messaging is different. It's "those finances are hard but ACTUALLY you're leveling up, you're grinding, you're finance maxing." It's hard but it's the kind of hard that is a challenge you can WIN at, boast about, post about, prove your manliness. Knowing cars, knowing home repairs, knowing taxes, that's your MAN pride, and you are so elite, you are so sigma, you are the envy of everyone, you are a masculine man. Women love you. Women will defer to you. Strong, respected, moral, loyal, unshakeable. Unlike those pansy men (mind the homophobic dogwhistling) who will whimper and cry like girls. You are better.

The shitty retail job is actually humble beginnings because you're minmaxing your way to financial success (bitcoin, crypto, investments). You can sleep with any woman you want as long as you're confident, and then you'll find one who understands how smart and confident and strong and protective you are and she will defer to you as her man. She will birth your children and teach them good morals and you will make it. Our ancestors lived this way for generations (dogwhistle) and modern society took it from you.

And with that messaging it makes it clear who the enemy in all this is - modern society that has convinced women to torture themselves with high education and terrible jobs, turned them Ugly with Ugly opinions and bad hair and nasty attitudes, yelping about "rights" and "equality" (pitting them against men! TAKING things from men!) All the while, society has been trying to emasculate men--replace them with women, make them soft and emotional, make them gay, make them WEAK. We've been made WEAK.

The naive women hearing this go "I'm not ugly! I don't hate men! I DO hate my job and my finances. I've been tricked. I'm actually rebelling by declaring my goal is to get a Perfect (White) (Christian) moral husband who will make all our decisions and protect me and our children." (And when she's financially trapped in an abusive marriage...? When she's suicidal with PPD but her husband won't touch that because it's Woman Hysteria...? And when her husband leaves her for someone who was as hot as she was 20 years ago and now she's figuring out finances, health care, taxes, bank accounts for the first time in her life...?)

And the men go "They've been TAKING things from us for too long! It's time to be men again! It's time to take pride! I am strong and confident. I am in charge! I never show weakness!" (And when he's got a gun to his head due to the depression he's never been allowed to talk about as Women Feelings...? And when he's financially ruined from a crypto scheme that stroked his ego and robbed him blind...? And when he's dead from alcohol poisoning and none of his adult children notice because no one's spoken to 'Dad' in 15 years...?)

And it's so hard to fight because you're arguing against a fantasy. How do you disprove their fantasy? It's so hard to explain to them, hey you're working a shitty job where you have no future because the rich bastards took it all from you. And now you're doing their work for them. You hate society because of what they've done to it and now you're doing their work. Now you're targeting groups who've never done anything to harm you and the guys responsible are laughing to the bank. How do you explain? How do you disprove fantasy?

Hey, you know what I'd love to see this year?

Localized Solarpunk, from all over the world.

For example, how would traditional clothes or buildings or art look like with a Solarpunk twist? What kind of energy sources or food production would there be? What about transport?

I'll start: The optimal shape of architecture in coastal New England is the dome/parabolic arch:

it's exceptionally good at distributing heat and shedding snow!

That kind of super traditional 16th century housing isn't really practical for most modern applications, but know what is?

Polyhedral and Arch-span domes! (monolithic domes are pretty but they don't stand up well to freeze-thaw cycles - you need to have joints than can flex)

They're super efficient at maintaining airflow without forced/mechanical air movement.

Hi! I'm from the southwest desert and the weird video game map that is coastal southern california! We've got everything within hours of each other, from desert to snow to beaches to unique biomes found nowhere else, like chaparral! But mostly, we need our housing to shed HEAT and have really lovely DRY weather, so we can get silly with it: Meet Googie, my FAVOURITE kind of architecture!

This Norm's Diner is a Historic Building!:

But what do HOUSES look like? Well, I'm glad you asked!

This is one of the famous Eichler houses of California! You'll notice it has rafters that are visible from outside to inside, with breezeblock privacy wall and clerestory windows.

Here's another Eichler, and as you can see there's a breezeway through the house. That hollow roof makes the wind pull the hot air out of the house all the time, and through that red door is a courtyard surrounded on all sides by windows, but with an open top. This means all the sliding glass doors can be opened up, and cool the whole house! You can also put a fountain in the courtyard for extra cooling!

Here's another one! What you might notice about all of these is how private they are from the front! I love that about Eichlers, frankly. I come from a land of privacy, not porch-sitting.

I have already written a large post on this subject before, it's here: