sweet, might base an agricultural civilisation on this river, hope it behaves itself
might just fuck around and find out
Diversity win! This river has ADHD
Nile: You would not believe how long term you have to mismanage agriculture on my banks to start experiencing soil depletion. I will always be here for you Egypt.
Huang He: *kicks in the door* FUCK YOUR DYNASTY IT’S FAMINE TIME!!!
I wasn’t aware of this one, so I’m trying to spread the word.
Black faith leaders have called for a 40-day “fast” from Target for Lent in response to their compliance with Trump’s resegregation agenda.
Now this is an effective boycott. It is targeting (ha) a specific company with a clearly stated goal. The amount of time is long enough to be noticed, and could be extended if needed. Anything that can be purchased at Target can also be obtained elsewhere, so it is actually possible to boycott this specific company for a very long time. Target is caving to fascism and rolling back their diversity and inclusion policies. The goal is for them to reverse that decision. This is an achievable goal.
Boycotting everything all at once, for one day or for as long as you can, because everything is terrible and we’re mad about it…does nothing. It’s vague, disorganized, and frankly impossible. We have to buy things sometimes. You can’t just target the economy as a whole. You have to be specific.
If you want to start a boycott, use this one as an example. Choose one target. Provide one (simple, clear, easy to explain) reason why that company deserves to be boycotted. Explain what you want them to do differently. Make sure that it is something that can actually be done. Then tell people about it.
some big grocery stores that have publicly rolled back DEI:
Target
Walmart
Whole Foods (Amazon)
some big grocery stores that have publicly doubled down on maintaining commitment to DEI:
Trans activist Jamison Green’s passport photos before and after HRT. Left he’s age 32 (1980) Right age 41 (1989) after being on testosterone for one year(x)
updated the link to his autobiography because it was broken! here’s some more pictures of him (first is mid 90s, second 2013 and last 2024)
there’s an interview with him from 2017 along with some information about his life and activism. and he was interviewed on a podcast here. he’s not super well known but has been a really important trans activist for decades
talking about impenetrable accents/dialect just reminded me. when I was in Milan a couple of years back I was staying in this little rathole hotel and I had the biggest fucking migraine, so I was like non c’è problema I’ll just go buy painkillers. of course every pharmacy on the map in a three block radius was closed, so my stupid ass just starts wandering around trying to figure out on the fly if you can get OTC from supermarkets in italy.
I walk into this little everything store (to my foreign eyes the kind of place that back home could sell you a bunch of carrots, a 6-pack of beer, pantyhose, bleach and a screwdriver set) and I see some household basics in the back but not what I need. with the confidence of a person who is only in the city for 3 days because he got bored and packed a bag and booked the cheapest flight available the week before (<= MENTAL ILLNESS), I was like no worries I know some italian, I can just ask.
I grab a bottle of water, walk up to the counter, and I’m like Ciao, hai il paracetamolo? And the guy is like che, and I’m like paracetamolo. Per la mia testa. And he’s like che?
This is where I would have said ‘aspirina’ except I can’t take aspirin for medical reasons, or ‘antidolorifico’ except I don’t know that word and I’ve got no phone data for google translate and also I’m stupid. So in my fucked up leith-glasgow-italian accent I’m like paaa-ra-cetta-mollll-ooo. He’s like ohhh bene, bene, and he calls another guy out of the back and asks him to go get something. Other guy then walks out of the store into the street, and before I can be like hey, che la fuck, he comes back and hands me a huge bundle of herbs.
At this point I’m like okay this entire interaction has been a bust, but these guys have been very nice and patient and they’re both smiling happily at me because they’ve been of service, so I’m like ahh perfetto, grazie, pay them a couple of euros and leave.
EVENTUALLY I find a pharmacy that’s open, and my head is fucking killing me, and my phone still isn’t connecting, and now I have this small shrubbery poking out of my coat pocket, so I don’t even bother looking around the shelves. I just walk straight to the counter and I’m like uhh ciao, scusi. And hearing my nightmare of an accent the guy answers in english and I’m like thank christ, do you please have paracetamol. Not aspirin, I can’t take aspirin. And he’s like yeah yeah hold on, goes into the back, comes out with what I need.
Only when he comes out he gives me this look, and then he starts laughing. And then he pretends he’s not laughing and rings me up and I pay, and as I’m leaving I can see him losing it. But I don’t care, my head is going to explode, I’m going back to the rathole to close the blinds and fall comatose for four hours.
When I get back to my hotel room I take off my coat and remember the huge bouquet of herbs in my pocket. They smell amazing, and I’m like I’m pretty sure this is parsley in which case I can just get some tomatoes and mozzarella later and make it work. but since I have no idea what that interaction was, I want to make sure. I bring out my phone to get a visual reference of what parsley leaves look like, and because I was using it for google translate earlier I put ‘parsley’ in the wrong box like a dope and translate it to italian.
prezzemolo
I wish I could have been the pharmacist in the moment he looked at my tired pissed off anglophone ass, heard me say ‘paracetamol’ in my fucked up accent, and turned around saw what was in my pocket. I’d have lost my shit too.
Respect to the first guys who, after you left, said “what a nice bloke. He looked so tired. We can relate. Whom amongst us has NOT had a parsley-related emergency”
amhrancas 