Detainees and advocates decry ‘horrific’ conditions at Louisiana ICE detention center

The Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana has been the subject of years of complaints about inadequate medical care, filthy accommodations and mistreatment.
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/news/detainees-advocates-decry-horrific-conditions-louisiana-ice-detention-rcna92339

Anti-refugee rhetoric and the new far-right on Turkish social media · Global Voices

There is a wave of anti-refugee rhetoric running amok on Turkish social media. From openly racist statements made by far-right political party leaders to accounts claiming to be “news agencies” circulating disinformation to incite violence, social media is not making life safer for the over 4 million refugees within Turkish borders. There have been several points of escalation in the rhetoric; Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover provided a safe space for the Turkish far-right just like their international compatriots, and the Turkish elections in May 2023 saw refugees targeted by political campaigns. Yet, regardless of those spikes, this trend of increasing hate speech targeting refugees in Turkish social media has a longer history. Source: Anti-refugee rhetoric and the new far-right on Turkish social media · Global Voices

Magical Moment…by Magic Mixture – Magic Mixture

“You know that magical moment before dawn? That tenuous moment between the darkness of the night and the break of dawn? That’s where hope lives. It is where faciries and all beings of light say “Amen” and then, in a majestic gesture of Love, the Universe regroups in possibilities. In that fraction of time, a unique spectacle of adventures and surprises emerges and is reborn, which we have the choice and the chance to always make better and more harmonious.” Source: Magical Moment…by Magic Mixture – Magic Mixture

Far West

Cadiz, Spain 2016

ore de drum

Cadiz, 2016

Geografic, stilistic și emoțional, Cadiz înseamnă pentru mine un îndepărtat, greu de atins și neprețuit refugiu însorit.

Am verificat cu sârguință maniera în care trepidantul nord catalunez înfruntă sudul domol și tihnit și, o dată în plus, la Cadiz m-am lăsat vrăjită de farmecul ospitalier, zâmbitor și revigorant.

Din fericire, turiștii sunt absorbiți în triunghiul de aur Cordoba-Sevilla-Granada și nu bat drumul până aici, mai ales în miezul iernii, așa că orașul își păstrează genuinitatea.

În minionul centru istoric aflat în vârful unei peninsule, ajungi după kilometri întregi de bulevarde mărginite de blocuri cochete și de o nesfârșită, apetisantă plajă largă.

Labirintul de străduțe înguste ascunde case cu balcoane de fier forjat și patios nebănuite în stilul tipic sudist,

cu accente baroce și coloniale, înveselit cu mici ornamente de placuțe din ceramică.

În apropiere de port se întind largi piețe cu spații verzi unde predomină palmierii.

Să ne…

View original post 412 more words

Medicare Advantage 101 – Medicare Rights Center

Rcooley123's Blog

As someone who recently became eligible for Medicare, and as we are all soon to be inundated by television ads concerning Medicare Advantage (open enrollment for which ends, for some ironic reason I find unfathomable, on December 7th), I thought some might find the linked material helpful. – rjc

The Medicare Rights Center is proud to announce the release of a new policy series to help individuals better understand Medicare Advantage and its role within the Medicare system.

Source: Medicare Advantage 101 – Medicare Rights Center

View original post

♫ In The Summertime ♫ (Redux)

Filosofa's Word

Okay, yeah, so I seem to play this one every summer … and this summer is no exception.  Why?  Because I like the song!!!  Do I really need any other justification?  I like the music, but partly I like the fun they seem to be having producing the music!  Now that summer is here in full force, look for more summer-themed songs to come out of Filosofa’s Mind!


This song was written by Ray Dorset, who was the lead singer and guitarist for the group Mungo Jerry.  Now, until I first posted this song a few years ago, I thought Mungo Jerry was a solo artist, the one who turns out to be Dorset.

The band was known as Memphis Leather and The Good Earth before getting a record deal and changing their name to Mungo Jerry (after the character Mungojerrie from the T. S. Eliot book Old Possum’s Book…

View original post 792 more words

Review of The Last Conquistador: Juan De Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest, by Marc Simmons

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

    This book  LstConqustdr  goes with Ministry Mondays, obviously.  It was a rather biased book, I thought, given his frequent lauding of the so called accomplishments of the Spaniards in general in colonizing what he calls, several times, barren wilderness. I suspect that those already living in the area might have disagreed that the Spaniards were discovering anything, and certainly resented the idea that they were to humbly convert to the religion of their conquerors and pay tribute for the privilege to boot.

from my reading notes:

p. 21 “Their case exemplifies one of the imponderables in the human condition.” Nice point, but I no longer recall to what he was referring…

p. 65 “Hidalgo-mania” reminds me of (Hidalgos were the lowest level of Spanish nobility, to which every non noble aspired, thanks to the promise of becoming an Hidalgo for those who survived the journey of conquest to…

View original post 283 more words