Iā€™ve tried very hard to keep it positive here and in my life, but thatā€™s been a challenge during the last few days. With the bullshit rulings the Supreme Court has made about abortion rights, affirmative action, LGBTQIA+ rights, and student loan forgiveness, the country I was born into has never felt less familiar and welcoming.

    One party wants healthcare only for those who can afford its currently obscene costs. Everyone else wants non-restrictive healthcare for all.

    One party wants to control the bodies of women and believes that a fetus is the most important thing in the world (until itā€™s old enough to be shot to death). Everyone else wants to provide abortions for women, life-saving and otherwise.

    One party wants to saddle people with lifelong debt for an education full of whitewashing and other inaccuracies. Everyone else wants free or low-cost high-quality education for all who want it.

    One party doesnā€™t actually care if children and adults continue to die while they hide behind a faƧade of meaningless thoughts and prayers. Everyone else wants sensible gun control.

    One party wants to subjugate, invalidate, and criminalize LGBTQIA+, women, people of color, and all minorities. Everyone else wants real equality and fairness for all.

    One party swims with glee in the murky, disgusting depths of hate. Everyone else is intolerant of intolerance.

    Iā€™d be more interested in working together if one party wasnā€™t constantly trying to tear us all apart. As it is, they donā€™t deserve my kindness or respect. I hope their wicked and despicable ideologies soon shrivel and fade away into nothing forever.

    Illinois becomes first state to pass law curtailing book bans ā†—

    From Brendan Oā€™Brien at Reuters:

    Illinois has become the first state to legislate against the banning of books in public libraries, a practice that has been on the rise across the United States as conservatives look to suppress some books dealing with race, history and LGBTQ topics.

    Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, signed the historic measure into law on Monday in a Chicago library. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, the governorā€™s office said in a statement.

    Iā€™m a little late on this oneā€”the story broke on June 13ā€”but I think itā€™s still worth celebrating. This is a step in the right direction, a positive step, a good step. I donā€™t think book bans of any sort are helpful to anyone, especially young people who should have every opportunity to expand their minds and grow their empathy. All of them are reactionary crusades against that which ignorant adults canā€™t handle and, therefore, hate. None of them are truly done with the well-being of young people in mind, no matter the rhetoric involved.

    Just take the words of Laura Hois, co-chair of a chapter of Awake Illinois,1 for proof:

    ā€œWe object to gender influencing, indoctrination of our kids toward anti-racism and leftist agendas.ā€

    They object to gender influencing (which surely isnā€™t actually a thing) and anti-racism? Theyā€™re promoting and longing for racism? Itā€™s all just their own contemptuous hang-ups that theyā€™re trying to force into the minds of young people, spreading the hate virus. At this point, it should be no surprise that the quiet parts just keep getting said louder and louder. Itā€™s still disgusting to see.

    A ban on book bans. Good job, Illinois! Seriously. Iā€™m proud of that state for doing the right thing here, and I hope more states, especially my own, follow suit (and soon).

    Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed this bill into law, and what he said is a fine way to end this post:

    ā€œHere in Illinois, we donā€™t hide from the truth, we embrace it. [ā€¦] Young people shouldnā€™t be kept from learning about the realities of our world; I want them to become critical thinkers, exposed to ideas that they disagree with, proud of what our nation has overcome.ā€


    1. Iā€™m not going to link to that person or any affiliated websites. Iā€™m sure you understand why. If you want to dare venture into that muck, then please search for it on your own. ↩︎

    Biden signs gay marriage bill at White House ceremony ā†—

    From Chris Megerian at The Associated Press:

    President Joe Biden signed gay marriage legislation into law Tuesday before a crowd of thousands, a ceremony that reflected growing acceptance of same-sex unions.

    ā€œThis law and the love it defends strike a blow against hate in all its forms,ā€ Biden said on the South Lawn of the White House. ā€œAnd thatā€™s why this law matters to every single American.ā€

    Often, the news I read isnā€™t very happy or life-affirming. This story is not one of those sad pieces. This is a ā€œfinallyā€ that is well worth celebrating. With this law, weā€™re continuing to move in the correct direction.

    Love wins, as it always will.

    I get an email when my voting ballot has been sent out. I can drop it off at any of several different locations at my leisure. I get another email informing me that my vote has been counted.

    I love how easy and supportive it is to vote in California.

    Delete TikTok from app stores, says FCC commissioner to Apple and Google ā†—

    From Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac:

    An FCC commissioner has called on both Apple and Google to delete TikTok from their respective app stores, giving the companies until July 8 to respond. [ā€¦]

    The lengthy four-page letter says that TikTok is not a video-sharing app, but a ā€œsophisticated surveillance toolā€ for the Chinese government ā€¦

    Thatā€™s a pretty damning but unsurprising development in the continuing U.S. vs. TikTok skirmish. Where it concerns this issue, the next week and a half is going to be interesting. I imagine itā€™s relatively rare that the U.S. government passes such a weighty edict to companies like Apple and Google (although thatā€™s undoubtedly going to become more frequent).

    These days, it also feels rare for the federal government to do much of anything beneficial. Iā€™ll admit that recent events have left me feeling bitter about the whole organization. One need also only look back at the previous administration, and its FCC chairman,1 to form a clear understanding of my disillusionment and that of many others.

    However, considering what was detailed in the the BuzzFeed News report that the FCC letter references, this feels like a positive step.

    By Emily Baker-White:

    For years, TikTok has responded to data privacy concerns by promising that information gathered about users in the United States is stored in the United States, rather than China, where ByteDance, the video platform’s parent company, is located. But according to leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings, China-based employees of ByteDance have repeatedly accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users. [ā€¦]

    Despite a TikTok executiveā€™s sworn testimony in an October 2021 Senate hearing that a ā€œworld-renowned, US-based security teamā€ decides who gets access to this data, nine statements by eight different employees describe situations where US employees had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how US user data was flowing. US staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes.

    Iā€™ve never been so proud and relieved to have not downloaded and given my personal information to an app. Call me a Luddite or out of touch, but at least the dire issue presented in the BuzzFeed report and this subsequent FCC letter has never been a concern for me.

    Count me among the people who believe the world would be better off if social media services of the size and scope of TikTok werenā€™t so easily accessible.


    1. As always, fuck Ajit Pai. ↩︎

    Itā€™s days like these that I wish with all my heart to have been born in a country that cares about its citizens, or that it was immensely easier to become part of one.

    I continue to hope that love and good will prevail here, but hate-filled people are making it so tough.

    Is This What You Wanted? ā†—

    I couldnā€™t agree any more with Casey Liss (@liss) than I do currently.

    Iā€™m also completely finished with Trump, his hateful ideologies and rhetoric, and absolutely anyone who continues to support this weak, murderous, monster of a person.

    From an article in The New Yorker written by Susan B. Glasser, titled ā€œTrump Plays Macho Man as America Burns,ā€

    By midday Sunday, of course, Trump was back to being Trump, even as the piles of broken glass were still being swept away from the front of expense-account restaurants and fancy hotels and A.T.M. machines in the blocks around the White House. As joggers snapped pictures of the fresh ā€œFuck Trumpā€ graffiti across the street, the President was back to fulminating on Twitter about the ā€œLamestream Mediaā€ and ā€œFAKE NEWS.ā€ He was blaming the mayor of Minneapolis and ā€œradical Left Anarchistsā€ for the nationā€™s troubles, chiding leaders of ā€œDemocrat run Cities and States,ā€ and mocking his November opponent, ā€œSleepy Joeā€ Biden. He was claiming legal power that he does not have to designate the loosely organized, leftist Antifa movement as a terrorist organization. He was back, in other words, to being the almighty President of his public conjurings, the fulminating would-be autocrat who loves nothing more than to ramble on about his ā€œabsolute rightā€ to do just about anything, whether he has that right or not.

    We clearly have a petulant man-child in the White House, surrounded by an army of enablers, and supported by a small, but vocal collection of the populace (whom he does not actually care for) with an equal share of blackness and hatred in their own hearts. All he cares for in this world is his own enrichment and popularity. Iā€™m certain heā€™s not spared a single sorrowful thought for the murder and loss of George Floyd. His words and presidency are a knee on the neck of this entire country.

    Iā€™m looking forward to help vote him out in November. This country, this world, deserves far better.