July 24, 2023

I'm baaaack!

I'm baaaack!
(In case anyone hadn't noticed.) And in my usual Monday morning sharp-tongued, sarcastic form, too. Did y'all miss me? I was in Tennessee, visiting daughter and grandchildren and generally taking a social media break. It was fun, but I'm glad to be home. I think my cats were happy to see me too, although Empress Josephine regarded me somewhat sourly, as is her usual wont, but perhaps more so than usual, as if to say, "Who was that giant guy feeding us?" Well, Husband is rather taller than I am. Countess Marguerite Hissenspitz, however, wound around my ankles purring and allowed herself to be stroked down her back, which is a fairly new development. Life is good.

Did y'all miss me?

July 24, 2023

Why Do Neo-Nazis Keep Getting Arrested For Child Sexual Abuse Material?

Last June, according to court documents, Jared Boyce crammed himself into the back of a U-Haul with his fellow members of Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, to protest an LGBTQ pride event in Idaho and slur attendees as “groomers.” Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the hateful crew wearing matching khaki pants, it’s unlikely Boyce knew this would result in him eventually being sentenced to a year in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor.

Once the group pulled up to the event, they were all promptly arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit a riot. Less than a month later, police seized Boyce's phone. While they weren't actively searching for illegal sexual material on it, they found 22 photos of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM. According to court documents, these photos "involve children from toddlers to prepubescents performing sexual acts on adults or other children, as well as images of children exposing their genitals." The 28-year-old had also, police found, sent a picture of his penis to a 16-year-old girl.

"Don’t believe the media," Boyce reportedly told his mother following his initial arrest. "We were just there because they’re grooming kids.”

Boyce plead guilty to nine felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor earlier this year. The Patriot Front member is hardly the first person connected to neo-Nazi groups to be caught with CSAM.

In just the past few months, at least two neo-Nazis in the UK were sentenced to time in prison for having or distributing CSAM. Luca Benincasa, a 20-year-old from Cardiff who was a cell leader for the neo-Nazi group Feuerkrieg Division, was sentenced to nine years for possession of documents likely to be useful to a terrorist, being a member of a banned group, and possessing indecent photos of children.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3akvbw/why-do-neo-nazis-keep-getting-arrested-for-child-porn

So far it's about 90 to 1, but they keep claiming it's because they get arrested and searched, etc. Well, stop committing crimes and you won't get arrested and searched!

July 24, 2023

Inside the Republican effort to force millions of farm animals back into cages

By Kenny Torrella

You may not have noticed it, but the grocery store egg aisle has increasingly been going cage-free. In 2015, just a few percent of eggs sold in the US came from hens that weren’t confined in tiny cages. Today, it’s close to 40 percent. That swift change has come in part because eight states have prohibited the sale of eggs from caged hens; some of those states have also prohibited the sale of pork and veal from cruelly confined animals.

While some cage-free conditions are far from humane, the shift in farming practices represents one of the few examples of progress in the decades-long fight against animal factory farming. Now a GOP-led bill in Congress could blow it all up.

The EATS Act, short for Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression, was introduced last month by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) with a companion bill in the House from Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), and would prohibit state and local governments from setting standards for how agricultural products imported from other states are produced. The bill’s language is not only sweeping, but vague, and some of its potential effects are unclear. For example, it covers the “preharvest” production of agricultural products, but “preharvest” isn’t defined.

If enacted, and if it were to survive likely court challenges, the EATS Act would open up all those cage-free laws to lawsuits, potentially erasing decades of progress for animals suffering on factory farms. The bill would also threaten other farmed animal welfare laws, like California’s and New York City’s prohibitions on the sale of foie gras, a product made by force-feeding ducks and geese. (Disclosure: Prior to Vox, I worked at animal welfare groups that advocated for cage-free laws and opposed legislation similar to the EATS Act.)

https://www.vox.com/

Of course it would come from these a-holes from these s-hole places. (On reflection, I should really stop calling people a-holes. Those things serve a useful purpose.)

July 16, 2023

After homeless man beaten to death in Montana town, advocates say they saw it coming

Scott Bryan had less than $65 to his name the night police said he was beaten to death by a 19-year-old man outside of a gas station in Kalispell, Montana.

Bryan, 60, had lived on-and-off the streets since 2021, in the community of 28,000 residents about 200 miles southeast of Helena. But friends were getting worried about Bryan – he was trying to make $65 last for weeks while dealing with health problems and the increasingly hostile attitude some in the community had started to take toward him and others struggling to survive.

On June 25, around 2 a.m., police said Kaleb Fleck, 19, and an 18-year-old friend were sitting inside a pickup truck when Bryan approached them. Moments later, Bryan was lying on the ground with severe facial trauma, including exposed bone and a nasal cavity that appeared crushed, according to police. Fleck was arrested and charged with killing Bryan.

It may be a more violent version of the encounter that played out on a New York City subway nearly two months earlier, where U.S. Marine veteran Daniel Penny choked Jordan Neely, killing him. That case drew national attention, including acclaim for Penny from right-wing pundits, but experts say both Nelly and Bryan's cases point to the violence homeless Americans regularly encounter.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/15/hostility-toward-homeless-scott-bryan-beating-death-montana/70404297007/

Some punk who thinks *Nobody will care if I kill this POS because he's homeless" decides to kill because he can. How do you like the inside of a cell, blue-eyed boy?

July 15, 2023

Doctor found liable for battery of a teen girl and accused of abusing another is still practicing

A Virginia pediatrician hit with a $1.3 million civil verdict for barging into a 15-year-old patient’s home under the guise of making an unscheduled “house call” and allegedly fondling the girl’s breasts still has a license to practice medicine.

And now he’s facing a new lawsuit accusing him of sexual battery of another teenage patient.

But Dr. Martin Seth Forman has never been charged with a crime. And the regulatory agency that oversees doctors in Virginia declined to discipline Forman when he was accused of inappropriately touching the first teenager and would not comment on whether it would move to lift his license now that he’s facing a second civil lawsuit.

The 70-year-old board certified doctor was found liable in civil court for the first incident that happened in March 2017. He is now being sued for $8.7 million by the parents of the other female patient for allegedly touching her breasts and rubbing himself against her earlier this year while performing a lymph node examination her parents claim was unnecessary.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/doctor-battery-abuse-accusation-virginia-pediatrician-martin-forman-rcna92342

July 15, 2023

The Navajo farmer taking a traditional approach to making baby food

There’s a paleontological site in the center of Zachariah and Mary Ben’s family farm plot. Or, at least there is if you’re their two-year-old son, Yabiitoh. Neon-colored pterodactyl and stegosaurus toys lay strewn about between freshly sprouted Hopi red dye amaranth and Navajo white corn. As the Bens plunge corn jabbers – a hand-held farming tool – loaded with Oaxacan green corn seeds into the New Mexico soil, Yabiitoh ditches the dinosaurs and races across the farm lot.

Just a few miles north of Shiprock, New Mexico, on land long stewarded by the Navajo (or Diné) people in the fertile valley of the San Juan River, Zach and Mary tend the land where they grow produce for their baby food company, Bidii Baby Foods.

After their son’s birth in 2021, the Bens were struck by the absence of fresh, local and traditional baby foods available near the Navajo Nation, where canned goods are prevalent and most of the produce in grocery stores is overpriced but bruised, if it’s available at all.

As a sixth-generation Navajo farmer, Zach had experience with permaculture and traditional farming techniques. And as a first-generation Hungarian American with a background in public health, Mary was equally invested in finding an alternative to the canned baby foods in distant grocery stores. So the two started a line of Navajo white corn-based dehydrated baby cereals grown on Zach’s grandmother’s farm plot. Since then, Bidii Baby Foods has fed 6,000 children nationwide, and is on track to feed 10,000 more with a grant from Save the Children in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/15/baby-food-alternative-native-american-farm-navajo-new-mexico

Quite possibly the most inspiring story I've read today. All the best to Zch and Mary Ben!

July 14, 2023

Comfort women: Last of Japan's WW2 sex slaves sing 'forget us not'

As Pilar Galang limps with her walking stick into a room full of fellow octogenarian women in a sleepy Philippine town, she suddenly struggles to remember why she is wearing her favourite floral dress.

The 88-year-old glances at her sister-in-law, Maria Quilantang. It's a cue to refresh her memory. The two women are in yet another gathering of former World War Two sex slaves - the so-called "comfort women" who were forced into military brothels in South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, China and Indonesia by the Japanese Imperial Army.

The 20 or so women in the farming village of Mapaniqui are among the last survivors in the Philippines.

As young teens they were snatched from their homes, dragged on dusty roads and imprisoned in a blood-red house where they were raped repeatedly. Now in their late 80s to early 90s, they continue to fight for a public apology and compensation from Japan, both of which have eluded them for decades. They recount their trauma to those willing to listen, hoping that they will not be forgotten by the world even as their own memories fade.

There were nearly 200,000 of them, mostly Koreans. In South Korea, their numbers have now dwindled to nine. The last known survivor in Taiwan died in May. Japan's refusal to confront its wartime past and pay reparations has been a source of tension with its neighbours.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65594025

So very sad.

July 14, 2023

Troubled teen facility in Utah ordered to shut down after child's death

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday informed Diamond Ranch Academy — a residential treatment center that promises to help adolescents with behavioral, mental health or substance abuse challenges — that it will not renew its license because of repeated violations. The facility must discharge all children in its care and shut down by Aug. 14.

The state’s decision came one day after a Utah Department of Commerce review panel, which included three medical professionals and is part of a litigation process, determined that Diamond Ranch Academy had “breached the standard of care” in several ways before the death of 17-year-old Taylor Goodridge.

Taylor, a patient at the facility, died on Dec. 20; an autopsy report found that an infection in her abdomen led to sepsis, a life-threatening condition that is often treatable with antibiotics. A state investigation previously concluded that Diamond Ranch Academy had failed to take her for medical treatment, even though she’d vomited for several days before she died.

Taylor began vomiting around Dec. 13 and had an “elevated” heart rate, fever and low blood pressure, and she asked to go to a hospital, according to the review panel’s findings this week. She had pale skin and her stomach became distended. However, Diamond Ranch Academy did not bring her to see a doctor and did not bring a physician to campus to see her. The facility eventually took a blood sample on Dec. 20, but she died that day before lab results were complete, the panel found.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/diamond-ranch-academy-ordered-shut-child-death-rcna94297

About damn time. This place should have been shut down the week after she died.

July 14, 2023

Life hacks from India on how to stay cool (without an air conditioner)

In Uttar Pradesh, India, where I grew up, temperatures can soar as high as 120 degrees in May and June. But very few people have access to an air conditioner.

With a per capita income of around a $1,000 a year, many people in this part of the country can't afford to buy an A/C unit or pay the power bills that come with using one.

So how do people keep cool?

That's a question that people are asking themselves as the world faces unprecedented heat waves, from the U.S. Southwest and Mexico to India to China. CNN reports that "China has been gripped by scorching heat waves for weeks, which authorities said had arrived earlier and been more widespread and extreme than in previous years." In some parts of the country, people are sheltering in air raid tunnels to stay cool.

And it's a deadly phenomenon. The World Health Organization reports that "from 1998-2017, more than 166,000 people died due to heatwaves."

Yet people in India and in other countries across the Global South have long figured out ways to deal with the horrible heat. And so, I'd like to share a few tips on how to stay cool that I've learned from my upbringing and elders in Uttar Pradesh. Some of the advice is just what you'd think – like drinking lots of liquids and staying out of the sun – but others might surprise you.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/08/02/1114354904/opinion-life-hacks-from-india-on-how-to-stay-cool-without-an-air-conditioner

I remember a lot of these hacks from childhood summers in Missouri when A/C was not a thing

July 13, 2023

Black Midwifery Shows a Way Forward for Abortion Care Despite Brutal Suppression

By Sarah DiGregorio

Just after lunch on a Wednesday in June, 64 midwives and midwives-in-training were assembled in a classroom at the Columbia School of Nursing in Manhattan, performing abortions on dragonfruit. Tools were laid out on sterile sheets, just as they would have been if the patient were an actual person and not an exotic fruit. There were forceps to stabilize the “uterus,” a long plastic dilator to open the “cervix,” swabs, “iodine” (soy sauce), lidocaine syringes, and the manual vacuum aspirator, which is used to provide the abortion. The aspirator is made up of a thin plastic cannula that goes into the uterus, and at the other end, a fat plastic syringe, with a plunger that is pulled back to create suction. Seven trainers, both midwives and physicians, watched carefully as the trainee midwives worked in pairs, each taking a turn to hold the fruit steady while the other inserted the long cannula and sucked out the black-speckled pulp.

Michelle Drew, of Ubuntu Black Family Wellness Collective in Wilmington, Delaware, was the workshop’s lead instructor. A certified nurse-midwife with a doctorate in nursing practice, she circled the room to offer feedback on technique, then stopped to help a participant, taking their dragonfruit in one hand and the aspirator in the other. “A lot of times you see people going straight in,” she said, demonstrating how one might insert the cannula into the center of the uterus. “But when you are going in for the first time, go at an angle. So I’m going upward first. Gently, I feel the fundus,” she said, referring to the farthest wall of the uterus. “And then I’m pulling back,” she said, showing how to bring the cannula back towards the cervix. “Now I’m going to change my angle and go downward. Now I’m coming back, and then back in at 9 o’clock, and twisting, twisting. And if you do a good block with the lidocaine, you can relieve the uterine pain as well.” This methodical approach ensures an abortion is thorough, not leaving any pregnancy tissue behind.

Training of this kind is much harder to find than it should be. By New York state law, midwives are able to provide procedural and medication abortion, but they must have extra training for procedural abortion—both classroom instruction and practice, and then clinical training with real patients under the direction of a mentor. But most midwifery schools do not provide that training, partly because it is considered an advanced skill and so is not on the midwifery licensing exam, and partly because there are not enough abortion providers to be clinical mentors. What slots are available are often taken by OB-GYN residents, for whom it is a required part of training. Abortion is not accessible if there aren’t enough providers to train more providers—and that would be true even absent the other factors that make abortion care hard to come by, like restrictive laws, stigma, and suppression. It’s a vicious cycle.

Here is what happens when there are not enough abortion providers: Drew told me the story of a woman named Precious. (“And she was. She was a wonderful young mother, just beautiful and sweet,” Drew said.) Precious acquired a heart condition during one of her pregnancies; she lost two-thirds of her heart function and was advised that she shouldn’t get pregnant again. But she did, and at first she felt fine. But by 14 weeks, it was clear that her heart was not going to make it through this pregnancy, and she needed to terminate. Drew, who at the time could not legally perform abortions, tried and tried to get her an appointment with a physician who could. But the few physicians who could do second trimester abortions were fully booked, partly because they were also providing so many low-risk first term abortions—exactly the kinds of abortions midwives could have safely performed. Drew called and called and Precious waited and waited, her heart function deteriorating. There were no appointments available before Precious crossed the 22 weeks and six days mark, after which Delaware prohibits abortion. She was not yet sick enough to qualify for an exception—at least not until 28 weeks, and by that time, the question became when to deliver instead of when to have an abortion. In the end, Precious gave birth to her baby at 32 weeks and then she died of heart failure. Drew went to her funeral.

https://jezebel.com/midwife-abortion-care-1850631246

I have begun to believe that Black midwives are the future.