What is old is new again. Crimea, empire, , national mythos, Now what Why Losing Crimea Will Destroy Putin

RantWoman greatly esteems Vlad Vexler for trenchant commentary about historical dimension of the current Russia Invaded Ukraine unpleasantness.

Enjoy this latest dispatch and then RantWoman will riff further.

and now Rasputin Performance by Boney M

Themes RantWoman is pulling at:

--the ins and outs of empire.

Sex and guns and murder and scandal

--charismatic religiosity whether related to inbred European royal families hemophilia problems or the #Pandemic, 

--malignant vehemence among onlookers to the war.

--social upheavals of different eras.

Hanukkah, not quite done

Image from StockFreeImages.com

 

RantWoman promised the year 8 Hanukkah posts and there is one more in the pipeline. The RantFamily Christmas is occurring in phases and RantWoman can give credit many places for the Hanukkah posts also occurring not quite on schedule, or doing some kind of hyphenated Quaker thing where the historical Quaker practice of not recognizing any day differently from any other collides with procrastination, at least faint desire to season possibly inflammatory content.

But it's end of the year list / 12 days of Christmas time so timeliness will occur somehow.

In the meantime as a gesture of ecology, recycling Not quite done from RantWoman's other blog...

Hanukkah Day 8 Disability Climate Change Infrastructure Intersectionality.

 

A fun Dreamstime image with people of several colors
though perhaps only hidden disabilities

RantWoman here takes a break from total self-absorption with an eye to sharing other voices

An excellent video from Canada with a stop on the way for some RantWoman opinions

Extract from promo email about an excellent local projects; RantWoman will now be seasoning whether and how to help season the conversation with some topical infrastructure jargon and commentary about disability matters. RantWoman is glad, although the alt text does not say so, that the group photo below includes a child in a stroller. RantWoman may need to riff on that..

Inspiring New BIPOC Report on Community Safety

Dear (RantWoman) Everyone deserves freedom of mobility and safe access to public streets. Yet what it means to feel safe while navigating our streets can mean different things to different people. For Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC) communities who have been disproportionately harmed by unsafe streets and unequally punished by an unjust system of traffic enforcement, what does community safety mean? And what would help people feel more safe on our streets and in our shared public spaces? Whose Streets? Our Streets! – an all-BIPOC workgroup launched by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways in 2020 – has been working to answer these questions and advocate for BIPOC community safety. We intentionally center BIPOC voices, experiences and leadership in all that we do. We use anti-racist organizing principles to develop relationships with groups led by and serving Seattle's many diverse BIPOC communities. We also work to build community skills and confidence through peer-to-peer skill sharing, mentorship and support. Whose Streets? Our Streets! members pictured: Alex Lew, Liletha Williams, Dee Haile, Ethan Campbell, Ardell Shaw, Renee Releford, babygirl Releford, Renaissance, Clara Cantor, KL Shannon & Dawit Ayana. Through listening sessions and community outreach this year, we heard from BIPOC communities – and the Black community in particular – that people experience an overwhelming amount of fear and anxiety just existing out on the street and in public places, and getting from point A to point B. The primary concern is harassment and fear of harassment – by police especially, but also by other people in positions of power such as bus drivers or fare enforcement officers, and by other members of the public. We just published these findings and more in a report to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). BIPOC-Led Solutions for Community Safety details how street safety is more than safety from vehicles. It describes how improving infrastructure on our streets – like adding crosswalks or bike lanes – is critical but insufficient. One of the most powerful listening sessions we did this year was with BIPOC youth. It was planned, led and facilitated by young people from our team working together with the NAACP Youth Council. It was amazing to see our youth speaking out about their experiences and the injustices they see and sharing their brilliance.

Read the report What’s next? As we distill our findings into an updated Whose Streets? Our Streets! policy agenda, we're mobilizing to: End traffic stops for non-moving violations in Washington and redirect resources from punitive enforcement to safety, as part of the Traffic Safety for All coalition. Permanently move parking enforcement to SDOT from SPD for the best safety and equity outcomes, when City Council takes this up again in the spring. Make sure next year’s expansion of the school zone speed camera program is equitable. This means not concentrating cameras in communities of color and offering accessible alternatives to people who can’t afford high ticket costs while continuing to push for a tiered or non-punitive system. With a growing community coalition and committed allies, we remain dedicated to organizing BIPOC communities to gain full and free use of our streets and public spaces. Donate today to power our work ahead. Together we can see this vision for mobility justice through. Support the work Thank you for being part of our movement, KL Shannon Community Organizer and Chair, Whose Streets? Our Streets! Clara Cantor Community Organizer and Member, Whose Streets? Our Streets! P.S. Join us on January 16 for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day workshops, rally, and march, where we’ll be doing a community report-back on this work! P.P.S. Power our work ahead to make streets safer for everyone! Every little bit counts. Donate by December 31 and your gift will go twice as far, thanks to a generous $14,000 matching challenge from our board of directors!

Hanukkah with a turkey or is it a peacock?

 

Thank you Dreamstime

There WILL be 8 Hanukkah posts. The timeline will have kinks because RantWoman got started late and means to end on time.

For reflection John Calvi 1990 FGC Laying Down the Weapons of the Heart

A note on the imagery: to RantWoman the menorah in this picture looks like it could be:

--One of thos elementary school turkeys drawn around someone's hand except here it take two hands with one thumb covering the other.

--Or it could be the head of a peacock with its tail feathers spread

--Or it could be a phoenix 

There is a part of the story RantWoman is unclear where to put. Let us hold that.

Shchedryk / Щедрик. Carol of the Bells. Original Ukrainian Version with ...

The holiday carol of the day.

The Carol of the Bells, in honor of fine traditions of musical transformation.

RantWoman posts this both in full support of Ukrainian independence and cultural identity and as part of prayer for soldiers, soldiers drafted and sent off under horrible conditions, soldiers in it just for the fight, soldiers with just cause. May all find paths to safety and peace.

And, yes, RantWoman can live with the possibility that the juxtaposition of thoughts here is controversial.

A How DOES he do that moment: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen | Low Bass Singer Cover

Hanukkah: and by accident of calendar Rest in Peace.

Menorah from Freepic

To the person RantWoman has come to refer to as the Safest Sex Offender on the planet: Rest in Peace

RantWoman heard news of this Friend's passing by text. This Friend had a powerhouse care committee and seems to have passed away with staff of his hospice facility around him. There will be a memorial in due time.

RantWoman does not particularly feel grateful to be reminded in a low-key way of things going on in her life at the Hospitality Committee equals pastoral care plus knives and hot liquids moment during coffee hour when the long saga of this Friend's walk with University Friends Meeting began.

The things that inflame RantWoman's soul this time of year are in no way this Friend's fault and the things still inflaming RantWoman's soul belong in a different post.

RantWoman is happy though to say Thank You Friend. Thank you for doing your own work. Thank you for all the learning that came from walking with you. Thank you for surprising RantWoman regularly with vocabulary RantWoman did not expect to hear from someone more comfortable with fixing things conversations than with more academic patterns of connection.

Thank you by the way for all the Fixing Things efforts you contributed!

Perhaps that is enough for now.

Hanukkah Night 3 Affiliation

Drawing behaving oddly as I edit

RantWoman how would you like your affiliation in the .... directory?

The first iteration of RantWoman's response

What happens if you just leave meeting affiliation blank?

How many conniptions will it cause in the data if you do that?

RantWoman appreciates attending and getting acquainted with Meeting A and Meeting . Both of them

are fine but different meetings. RantWoman is unclear whether to claim both of

them and not capable of further civil thought about the question

tonight. Please ask tomorrow.

[RantWoman, MUST YOU argue with every dang data table anyone tries to fit you into?]

As it happens, Yes! 

There is an alphabetical lookup but omitting any affiliation will result in RantWoman not appearing at all.

Okay then In Quaker zoom spaces RantWoman simply identifies as Seattle or NPYM or ... depending

How about add Meeting A, Meeting B, PNQM, Quaker Voice, the Pacific NW

Quaker Women's Theology Group, FLGBTQC, and The Association of

Bad Friends but absolutely not not not...

[There WILL be more conversation.]
Okay then,
PS Thank you for asking about accessibility in a software realm where RantWoman wanders all the time even if it's a different Quaker realm 

 

Pieni Rumpali (The Little Drummer Boy) from a 2017 concert

Because OF COURSE the world needs The Little Drummer Boy in Finnish.

Hanukkah, night 2, on fire all the time

Image from Dreamstime

Night 2: on being a white person with a disability, the always satisfying experience of having people's eyes glaze over so badly even RantWoman can tell just because RantWoman makes a reasonable accommodations request. Add the naive expectation that such requests can be coped with no fuss, no muss, no heads exploding at mere mention of RantWoman's name, no deciding accessibility is all handled because of some survey or that disability can be turned on and off depending on location.

RantWoman! You're harshing everyone's holiday mellow! How come all this old stuff keeps clattering out with the holiday decorations like batty guests one happens to be related to?

Ohhh. But I thought Quakers were all about every day being holy, just like every day being a good day to fight ableism Plus what holiday mellow? Vladimir Putin is threatening to nuke Yellowstone Park. Now that the January 6 Committee is finishing up its work, we are in for waves and waves of T***pist gaslighting The Sedition Caucus is about to get voted into leadership in the US House of Representatives, Seattle is dealing with snow as badly as ever. Christmas with the fam is getting upended by #COVID. This blog may be as mellow as things get.

RantWoman since you didn't get your point written during Quaker writing time, just write what's on your mind.

Dear...

It was great to (have the tech wherewithal to) participate in the most recent Board meeting. 

For the future, I need to make a standing reasonable accommodation request to have either a link to anything to be screen-shared or a copy by email. I am happy to provide probably more than enough detail to make your eyes glaze over about why I specifically need this, but others who have different disabilities have also commented that my suggestion would be a good idea. It is great to have the agenda and previous meeting's minutes available in advance online. It would be great just to make the slides available the same way.

I would prefer to have the documents in advance so that perhaps I can formulate questions for the public comment period currently set before other agenda items. However, this time I have a question based on one of the presentations.

The (team focusing on meeting the needs of BIPOC people in need of housing) is doing a great job. Do you have any data about what percentage of the people being served identify has having a disability?  What about the people who do not make it through all the hoops to actually get housing?

RantWoman is happy to suggest some standard questions used by the census bureau and happy to talk about wrap around services and anecdotal data from another part of her life but first, let's please start with the reasonable accommodations request.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely 

(RantWoman)

Hanukkah 2022: on fire?

Happy Hanukkah image from Dreamstime

RantWoman is not Jewish. No one in RantWoman's family is Jewish. So RantWoman doing anything framed around Hanukkah is a little presumptuous. And this is RantWoman so presumptuous is what we've got. RantWoman recently spent one Hanukkah season rage blogging on the theme of "nothing appropriate" in honor of one of the RantParents' more spectacular seasonal parenting lapses and the general state of RantWoman's frets about RantBrother.. 

This year in honor of the Feast of Lights RantWoman will be examining topics on a spectrum between small prose fires and make someone's head explode. RantWoman is not unconcerned about the Make people's head explode point but does not necessarily know how to buffer. RantWoman may or may not, for the sight dependent, add images from her recent  Holiday Iconography  post.

RantWoman is a little late for the first night and will simply adapt a Hanukkah greeting she offered to one of her blindness email lists with an asterisk indicating that part of the "on Fire" discussion has to do with bigger themes of Diversity Equity Inclusion and a suggestion RantWoman concurs with to (HORRORS) do away with invocations at a state convention, and even more outrageously with the Pledge of Allegiance, since some of us refuse to mumble about one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

But let us stick to Hanukkah for now.

(Hi all)

Thank you for the wishes and happy hanukkah to you. (the internet says this is a perfectly acceptable seasonal wish.)

I went looking for reminders about the meaning of Hanukkah and foun this article I appreciated because it covers lots of different parts of the history.

How to celebrate Hanukkah

Pay attention to all the ways to spell hanukkah which the screen reader definitely helps find.

Eating fried foods is a traditional part of Hanukkah. No one in my family is Jewish but one food from the Sephardic tradition that is made a lot in Mexico is bunuelos. My dad liked bunuelos and sometimes programmed sephardic music as part of his college choral programs. I found a recipe. It is a typical recipe website mess of ads and videos but you can use headings to find the recipe and instructions and skip all the rest.

Mexico In mY kitchen bunuelo recipe

Sometimes people who openly display menorahs get attacked or harassed so I also wish everyone a safe and festive celebration.

.

Doing it Right Courageous Conversations in a Climate of Fear

Powerful anti-racism perspectives in North Carolina via an old activist connection.

Posted as palate cleanser for the "Putin wants to nuke Yellowstone" item below.

Yo, Putin, you've got plenty on your hands; nuking Yellowstone National Park probably won't help

RantWoman, can't you find ANYTHING more uplifting for the week before Christmas than "Putin wants to nuke Yellowstone?"

Humbly, RantWoman is feeling snarky. 

RantWoman is taking a short break from her war video diet menu of Russian military positions, Russian vessels blockaded in both the Black Sea and the Baltic region, Russian soldiers deserting left and right, endless fires and explosions inside Russia, multilateral geopolitical intrigue, and Russian media commentators with their heads about to explode.

RantWoman is thoroughly TIRED OF #COVID but Covid appears not to be tired of Little Sister and Brother in Law. RantMom and Irrepressible Nephew are frankly quite iffy about quarantine.. 

RantWoman has a couple other threads of Trouble comes and finds (me).

So absurd and outrageous as the idea of nuking Yellowstone, is somewhere between comic relief and Oh Hell NO!

Enjoy?

Advent week 4 Cedarmont Kids - Children, Go Where I Send Thee

From TYT Republicans: No Child Tax Credit Until We Get Another Business Tax Cut

Why RantWoman has been filling her Twitter spaces with comments about how reducing child poverty is a #ProLife issue that should be bipartisan and why Republicans who spent the whole midterm campaign whining about #inflation really need to do things that help ordinary families combat inflation, things like make the #ChildTaxCredit permanent. make it cover as many families as possible.

Poor lions of industry raking in record profits off inflation. Hard to feel sympathy and do y'all REALLY really need those tax cuts.

Isn't RantWoman just full of good cheer!

Readers contact your legislators, wherever you are.

Holiday iconography 2022

RantWoman's Christmas work team is full of dyspeptic elves and proud members of the Asociation of Bad Friends particularly known for telling too much of the truth and not always even nicely.

RantWoman DOES mean Christmas even though RantWoman knows perfectly well there are plenty of tood ways and plenty of good reasons to go for HOLIDAY celebrations. DO NOT mash all the holidays together. Let us all feel both blessed in who we are and able to appreciate guests of other persuasions.

In any case, RantWoman is feeling inclined to accommodate the needs of Sight-dependent readers who need visual imagery on which to hang stories or as support for the verbal framework. 

Plus, it's just the holidays and weird things clamber out of RantWoman's psyche along with the Christmas decorations. Think of these as very over-the-top emojis

The following bits of iconography may or may not be sprinkled through blog posts over the next few weeks.

The Blooming
Christmas cactuses
symbolizing good friendship and
faithful annual flowering

 

This line drawing in honor of kindergarten traumas
trying to color inside the lines and in
appreciation of options to make tactile graphics
where it's easier to color in the lines
Also emblematic of regular holiday vexations

 

A compost symbol

Royalty free Food waste not quite composted
to symbolize themes
that come back and back and back
and lack of patience about finding
exactly the right royalty free graphic

RantWoman was astounded by the scale of some piles which turned up when RantWoman asked the internet for images of steaming piles of manure. 

RantWoman imagines the meaning
will be clear in context. Also please do not @ RantWoman about
methane and livestock production if only because RantWoman
does not have a better metaphor handy.

Some activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal for those times
when RantWoman is sorely tempted to hand out
lumps of coal and instead something badly needs to be filtered 

lumps of coal AKA VERY intensely composted organic matter.

Skip the reflections about burning hydrocarbons and greenhouse gases,
how about nutritionally appalling no-bake cookie recipe
involving crushed oreos and minimarshmallows instead

From the governor's equity summit

RantWoman is posting this item as a window both into the output of the Governor's Equity Summit and as a sampler of vitriol also available on a certain social media platform

 RantWoman is not attempting to offer alt text. Readers may appreciate sharing consumption of the table with someone also interested in ...

From the Governor's Equity Summit in Tacoma...if you're not paying attention, the revolution's going to happen without you even noticing. pic.twitter.com/DsPsq6g7CF

— W. David Pleasance (@2XVZwg9ge) December 13, 2022

What would God actually say? The wrath of God struck Russia: Moscow Streets Have Become Hell! I Divin...

RantWoman presents a sampling of offerings which come to RantWoman via Youtube about Russia's war on Ukraine.

There is quite a bit about military actions by both Russia and Ukraine, quite a bit about conditions and public opinion in Russia as well as Ukraine, hard-line perspectives in both countries, This sampling has less than some days about international perspectives.

Enjoy is not the right word; RantWoman hopes readers find this informative.

Ret. Gen Ben Hodges after attack on Wagner group

Times Radio interview about conditions in Ukraine and ... 

ANKA on impacts inside Russia

Russian First Guards tank army

Ukraine fires on Melitopol Russia fires on Odessa

BBC interview with Ukrainian Parliamentarian

CBC Interviews on evolution of Russian propaganda

Apologies to readers for whom neither spoken Russian nor subtitles are accessible. Ask a friend for help or leave a comment and RantWoman is happy to offer English.

And from Beau of the Fifth Column about NOT justifying the defense budget

The importance of understanding US capabilities

Also Beau, a blast from the 1980's and Russian KIA counts from fall Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Putin and a Swan Lake moment

Advent week 3 The Fairfield Four - Children Go Where I Send Thee

Putin Has Plan to Flee Russia After Government Collapses

Dear readers swirling in streams of frenzy

This is Planet RantWoman, RantWoman's blog as Quaker Journal. RantWoman has no compunction about posting on all sorts of issues.

This is only one of RantWoman's Russia / Ukraine media streams. The video gets to lots of other points before it gets to the possibility of Putin trying to flee to Argentina.

RantWoman is permitting herself to imagine some sort of island spa and medical zone designed to securely house and contain multiple decrepitating elders now on the world's stage.

In the meantime, reporting RantWoman considers informative and reliable but not the only info stream needed to be better informed than one can become from US mainstream media alone.

The Way to have a voice is to have a vote. Sen. Warnock Georgia Senate race | Full victory speech

History, Reconciliation; Indian Schools

 RantWoman is aware of wanting to wanting to wander into topics whose connection will almost certainly will not be obvious upon initial reading. RantWoman needs to start somewhere and hopefully connect with the kind of trustworthy editor who does not make RantWoman feel as if she is just supposed to hack off her right arm.

Today in #CivicsForLauren

1. RantWoman is pondering moral obligation in connection with a certain Indian school and certain family mineral rights based in SW Colorado.

2. RantWoman directs your attention to an Arizona Mirror article called The Horrors of Arizona Indian Boarding Schools have goon unacknowledged for too long RantWoman has put "Read up on Indian School issues in #CO03 on her mean to do list, partly for family reasons and partly in appreciation of the AZ faith communities represented in the above opinion piece. 

3. Quoting from he article above:

"For lawmakers, (reckoning with the past and striving toward a more just future) means supporting congressional efforts to kickstart a truth and healing process. Last September, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the U.S. Act (H.R. 5444/S. 2907) was introduced in both chambers of Congress. If passed, the legislation would create the first formal commission in U.S. history to investigate the human rights violations committed at these boarding schools and make recommendations for further government action.

In Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly and Reps. Raul Grijalva, Ruben Gallego, Greg Stanton, Ann Kirkpatrick, and Tom O’Halleran have all co-sponsored this bill. We urge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Reps. Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, and Debbie Lesko to follow in their footsteps. Further, we urge all faith communities across the country to join our call and contact their lawmakers in support of this legislation.

We cannot undo the immense harm caused by these boarding schools. But with this legislation currently before Congress, we can begin charting a new path forward with tribal communities—one based on truth, transparency, and justice. Our faith and morals demand it".

4. RantWoman, who is not currently a constituent but does have history. .and definitely notes topical history in CO. is wondering whether you would possibly consider signing on as a co-sponsor now and helping to ensure the bill gets reintroduced in the next Congress.

5. RantWoman notices that you have been elected to the Republican policy committee for CO, NE, KS, and OK. RantWoman is finding herself way to tempted to offer snark: "Oh, good, now instead of one state for a barely re-elected congresswoman to not serve, she now has 4 states not to serve." RantWoman is TRYING to summon better angels and just say RantWoman thinks it's a bad idea when anyone thinks people on the coasts don't care what happens in the middle of the country, in the "flyover states." Plus OK has the second largest number of native american boarding schools after AZ so how about reaching out as a way for everyone to learn more about history.

There. RantWoman has now said enough about one strand of grappling with history to need to save other strands for another night.

Advent Week 2: Children, Go Where I Send Thee in Shawnee Mission KS

RantWoman is specifically not commenting on either the name of the high school or the subject of religious vs cultural content in high school music programs. RantWoman is simply appreciating the cheerful imperfections of the performance.