SpaceDogs

And I totally forgot. I literally woke up this morning confused as hell with all the texts I was getting from family, when I unlocked my phone I saw all the “Happy Birthday” messages and realized I am a year older today!

I know we aren’t supposed to reveal our ages but I will say that I am not yet 30 but it’ll be really cool once I get there.

My spring/summer semester is also over which means I am free until September so thats nice. My male dog also started on fluoxetine for his terrible anxiety, so hopefully he does well. Overall I am trying to stay chill and happy now that a new year has started for me, from today I will finally have time to start up on my Russian language lessons too.

I must disclose that this is not a common opinion. If I had a nickel for every time someone called Parenti a genocide denier I’d have two nickels, once on twitter and once on tumblr, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

I have a feeling this has something to do with his book To Kill a Nation but I have yet to read it so I have no idea.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8123702

Hello comrades! I made a post about Anaam a while back and I am coming back to share her campaign because she has been messaging me on WhatsApp about her struggles.

Right now she has a rash and is in severe pain. She has asked for 1000 Danish Krone, but I am unable to give much as I am on a very limited income. She told me no one else is responding to her so I said I would reach out on her behalf.

Her campaign is almost completed, she only needs less than 2000 danish krone to make it to 100%. I know money is tight for everyone, so if you are unable to donate then please help spread this.

I do not know what else I can do.

Hello comrades! I made a post about Anaam a while back and I am coming back to share her campaign because she has been messaging me on WhatsApp about her struggles.

Right now she has a rash and is in severe pain. She has asked for 1000 Danish Krone, but I am unable to give much as I am on a very limited income. She told me no one else is responding to her so I said I would reach out on her behalf.

Her campaign is almost completed, she only needs less than 2000 danish krone to make it to 100%. I know money is tight for everyone, so if you are unable to donate then please help spread this.

I do not know what else I can do.

One of my slides for my presentation defines imperialism, using both Lenin and Parenti’s descriptions. Because of this I decided to take my male dog’s face and edit it onto Lenin to put on the slide.

It adds some humour, makes my slideshow visually interesting (most of the slides are plain), and it was a fun thing for me since I hate presenting. Plus he’s super cute. One day I will have to do the same to my other dog.

I have not done my presentation yet, it will happen in a few hours, but when I do I will let you all know how it goes.

For my political science class I have to make a presentation analyzing an article. She gave us a set amount to present on, all related to university, but because of my issues she’s allowing me to present by myself and on a topic I am passionate about as long as it is related to the university. I chose imperialism and how universities can be a weapon for it.

The article I am analyzing is called “Militarizing Education: the Intelligence Community’s Spy Camps,” it’s a chapter from the book the Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent. one of the chapters is actually written by Vijay Prashad but his felt a little less relevant to my project.

For the analysis part I had to find 5 scholarly sources, which you don’t have to worry about as I already found them. One of my sources is literally Lenin’s Imperialism the highest stage of capitalism. During my presentation I am going to talk about the School of Americas and I have some ideas on how to engage the class when that part comes, but at the end I have to do an “activity” with the class.

Previous presentations saw the class answer a series of questions, do group analysis on a few questions, and play a kahoot game. If it were up to me I’d just do my presentation and then sit my ass down. But I can’t do that so I’m asking for help from you.

Do you have any ideas on what I can do at the end of my presentation to fill out the “engagement” part of the grading rubric? I want to do well because I’ve been dying this semester.

I realize the title is confusing but I did not know what else to say.

A project for one of my semester 7 classes is requiring me to write a reflection paper on two conferences I attended. The problem? I have to have three academic sources to cite in this reflection, and the paper itself has to talk about “what impact the university has” based off these two conferences.

There were many conferences I could’ve chosen but I ended up choosing one that was about “multiculturalism, decolonization, and reconciliation through community” and the other was watching a documentary about Gay rights in Canada and then a panel was held with some of the makers of the movie.

The first conference made mentions about multiculturalism in Canada as a mere cover and not true justice, that they (the panelists, all radicalized women) were also being used in this way. One of the panelists even stated that decolonization requires a dismantling of the colonial system and a move away from capitalism, yet she did not state the alternative. When asked about China the woman, who is Taiwanese, stated that communism was a push against western imperialism but has its own form of imperialism. Another panelists talked about her experience with community gardens and how it connects people to the land and food production, this immediately reminded me of Marx’s alienation. This same panelist talked about how what they were talking about was risky as they could realistically be killed, but this was more in reference to her going back to, I believe, India.

So one of my sources is Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

The second conference was difficult due to the fact that the bulk of it was a movie and I was unable to write any notes during the film, but it was about a man who was fired from his teaching job for being gay. This prompted him to go to the courts of Canada to fight against discrimination based on sexuality as it was not protected. That is inaccurate, it was protected in all provinces except one. First he went to the provincial court but the case was immediately dismissed with as much violent homophobia as you could think. Then it was brought to the Supreme Court where the case was won and sexuality was made a protected category under the Charter.

Anyway, the main important bits was that the people involved in the case were tacked ruthlessly with severe homophobia and that it took several years. One of the lawyers even invoked the memory of the Holocaust to make the case for protecting sexual minorities. During the panel everyone there agreed that, due to the current political climate, we could realistically see a sequel documentary based around trans rights. The director of the film also talked about the cuts to USAID being an issue for LGBT organization overseas, specifically in Poland.

I am sorry for the long explanations but I felt the need to provide this information as to give you all a better idea of what I am dealing with. My mind went to the “revolutionary academic” and how that is clearly not allowed, and thus I found a source kind of about that by Henry Etzkowitz called “The Second Academic Revolution.” I am mostly going to make my own point about how the revolutions described in that paper are not what I am talking about. I am having a hard time finding any pieces on academic revolutionaries, if thats even possible. I am also struggling with linking my second conference to the main point of the paper which, again, is about impact (whatever that means).

I apologize if this is too much to ask for, even steering me in the right direction would help, no need for actual sources if that is not possible or appropriate. I honestly have no one else to consult with on this.

If its any help I was also approved of using Lenin as a source for any of my projects, so nobody is off the table regardless of how “controversial” they are.

Thank you for any guidance you can give me.

Plus this other Mark Pettus book:

Pettus’ books actually have video lectures and free PDF worksheets that go along, so that’s cool. He also has bilingual books which may be helpful. I’ve seen around that the penguin book was a good intro as well. The dictionary is just for expanding my vocabulary.

This is all before I get a tutor, of course, which is something I’ll need to do eventually even if it makes me nervous as hell.

Just thought I’d share because of the Soviet aesthetics that Pettus uses, plus the Lenin one is funny (I promise it’s not the first book I’m cracking open).

I am watching Portuguese news right now and there is a very angry debate going on between Luís Montenegro and André Ventura.

I cannot understand what they are saying really but it seems that Portugal is having an election due to “conflict of interest” regarding Montenegro’s family business. My Vavó said something about the PM’s wife but even she is confused about it. I find it funny that they’re having these two right-wing dudes go off on each other on TV but nothing for the PCP-CDU.

I’ve tried to explain to my Vavó that the Ventura guy sucks but it’s difficult to get a handle on things (she thinks he has good points on calling the current PM a liar). Isn’t he also a fan of Salazar? Is Portuguese media trying to drum up more support for CHEGA?

I am always worried about Portugal and since it’s the day before April 25th (anniversary of the Carnation Revolution) I’m a bit more antsy.

I don’t have class today but I came to school anyway to do some work because staying home makes getting assignments done really difficult. So while I was in the library I heard drums and chanting but couldn’t make out the words so I honestly thought it was the school’s marching band or something like that, maybe a club.

I didn’t pay it much mind until I came downstairs (the library is two floors). In one of the hallways just outside the library I saw a bunch of posters and stickers strewn about the walls and door way, a keffiyeh was even hanging off one of the doors to the library. A bunch of students were sitting on the floor chanting pro-Palestine slogans like “no justice no peace.” I then saw a bunch of cops walk by them and I guess they were being asked to leave.

Then one of the protesters started to tell everyone to bear witness that our school called the cops on them. It was disappointing to see this although I shouldn’t be surprised, haven’t all universities been calling the cops on their students when they protest for Palestine?

What I was surprised about was that there was a protest at all because I don’t believe our school is one of the ones that gives money to Israel, although I do know one of the schools where I am does. This isn’t me being against the sit in at all! Just illustrating why I was unaware it was happening. My school does have a Palestine club though so I think it was organized by them, I believe they also attend street protests as well.

I have no idea if they got arrested as I had to go home, but I hope they’re alright. Fuck my school for sicking the cops on them, I don’t know why they wouldn’t just send a faculty member or the Dean down to talk about their demands. Maybe I’m naive about all this.

EDIT: I managed to find the Instagram of the club, they made posts about the protest and it turns out that our school’s library system has links to the occupation! Holy shit. School admin still refuses to speak with the students, I remember there was a protest last year so it’s been radio silence for a long time. I will keep an eye on their posts and hopefully something fruitful comes from this.

That’s what my professor said when he gifted me these books. This was after visiting him during office hours to get help on how to write my work placement report as I did not know how I needed to cite sources while writing said personal report, I also lamented about how this semester has been killing me (work wise this has been the worst by far). My report is also due the same day I have two final exams which means more pain. He said just to email him (for a written record) so he can grant me an extension because he finds that to be a valid reason.

When he presented the books I asked if they were a parting gift since after this semester we will never see each other again. He said no because even though he’s going on sabbatical that doesn’t mean he’s not working, so I’ll see him around. But I can take them as a parting gift if I wanted. So I did and headed to the library to work on my paper that’s due Friday. My backpack was practically exploding and my back is in so much pain from carrying these plus a few other books.

From volume one:

Without the sleeve:

This was found in volume one as a bookmark:

What I mean is, why are they so reactionary?

They were once part of the Soviet Union, and while I am aware of the fact that after the USSR fell pretty much every country that was part of it fell into ruin (some bounced back), but there’s something about the Baltics that makes them stand out the most.

Besides Ukraine, they seem to be the most rabidly anti-communist/Russian and claim to have been colonized by the Soviets. I am very confused by all this and wanted to ask before I forgot.

What the fuck happened to the Baltics that made them like this? It’s like every time I see a Lithuania, Latvian, or Estonian flag on socials it is always paired with the most fascist shit I have ever seen.

Edit: added “socials” to be more specific.