“To suddenly pull out, it will mean that there will be people not able to access their treatment and, ultimately, that will result in people dying. It will also result in treatment resistance” — strains of #HIV that evolve to make #medication ineffective

#AIDS #USAID #cruelty https://www.salon.com/2025/02/28/a-whole-new-level-of-cruelty-health-experts-decry-devastating-cuts-to-hiv-treatment-programs/

my moral compass
insists it's pointing steady,
that the world's spinning

“…the Trump administration is preparing to deport the 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and have temporary legal status in the United States.”
—Heather Cox Richardson, March 6, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-6-2025
#ukraine #usa #trump #cruelty

Got the message below in email today from the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa, where I've previously enjoyed some fun MOOC courses, including a great one about writing poetry. But they obviously do a lot of good work beyond that, and so this is just very sad to see. But we should not avert our eyes to the specific effects of the ongoing savaging of the US government and its effects not only on domestic education but international relations. No good can come of this.

«Dear Friends,

We write today with a difficult update. On Wednesday, Feb. 26, the International Writing Program (IWP) learned that its grants with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, were being terminated. This notification explained that the IWP’s awards “no longer effectuate agency priorities,” nor align “with agency priorities and national interest.” The immediate result was the cancellation of Between the Lines (the IWP’s summer youth program), and the dissolution of Lines and Spaces Exchanges, Distance Learning courses, and Emerging Voices programs. The overall Fall Residency cohort will be reduced by around half due to the loss of federally funded participants; the IWP’s other long-time funding partners, including a combination of donors, grants, foreign ministries of culture, and NGOs, will continue to support writers.»

For fuller information:

https://iwp.uiowa.edu/announcement-iwp

As I listened to this discussion with historian and author Max Boot, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Trump’s regime of #cruelty is on course to kill more people than Hitler’s 6-million person #genocide. And whether that will eventually precipitate #war.

#USAID #fascism #MaxBoot #authoritarianism #betrayal #nato #StandwithUkraine #holocaust #Holodomor

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-feds/auid1456045551?i=1000698060267

Just saw this cartoon posted on the enshittified, dying legacy blogging platform a few worthwhile writers still use. The article says the cartoon is banned on the enshittified, dying legacy social media platform still used by a few worthwhile people - and a lot more worthless ones. (Hint: it's now owned by the cartoon's subject, Cylon Musk.)

Good cartoon, imo.