Posts in: Journal

The blowback is going to come in all forms

A neighbor, whose org is largely funded by USAID, shared that they laid-off 70% of their staff and they who remain are there to close-up shop. The web site is reduced to a splash page. They helped farmers farm better and more sustainably, adopting new technology and adapting to new environments, enabled locally-controlled economic development and community banking, implemented clean water and sanitation programs, and facilitated medical services capacity building.

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USAID shutdown reportedly styming anti-human trafficking direct service efforts

I worked for nearly a decade with the organization that currently runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline. I do not know the current specific details, but I believe it and am saddened by this news. I and my team supported some efforts to engage with some of the international partners alluded to if not mentioned in this reporting. I have all kinds of feelings about the space (and Polaris's unfortunate support for some very flawed legislation in the US), and I do not have an uncritical view of USAID, but it pains me to understand the many ways people just trying to help people are being crippled, seized-up and disrupted.

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I’ve kind of been at a loss, frozen and watching the horror show. Keeping a link log of the wretched developments but not publishing it. So far there are just my trite-and-sometimes cathartic reactions on social spaces. Not sure I have anything useful to add. Girding myself.

We finally got here—I’ve got a double Manhattan, a lit tree, most things cleaned and cooked before the holiday, only some wrapping (and lots of Santa-ascribed assembly) to sneak in tomorrow … so, eff it, now I will kick back and watch A Very Murray Christmas.

Tonight I’m remembering Phillip Wearne again. A friend in a chaotic time, and perhaps still also a missed opportunity to learn more from him. He introduced me to Graham Greene’s works, for which I’ll always be grateful.

It’s been a while since I posted an indulgent, vapid photo like this. Cheers, you filthy animals.

What appears to be a whisky cocktail in a rocks glass on a coaster, next to a closed sticker-laden laptop in the foreground. A Christmas tree projecting colorful lights into the ceiling and reflecting off of windows and framed art in the background.

Thank you, Noah.

I watch us
in our last, most honest minutes
putting bread on credit, double-
bagging bleach and ketchup, trying
to keep what we love alive.

EVP

I am not in the market to buy a new car, yet. But were I, my wife and I would be looking to EVs. When I entertain the hypothetical, I pause at my sense of the industry treating vehicles (all of them, seemingly, not just EVs) as an IoT appliance, tethered to the manufacturer one way or another, even if you don’t subscribe to extra services. I believe the following should be rights:

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