🕊️ Okay, folks.

Part 2 of 4 today, in a deep-dive series for #OnlySky.

We continue our look at Israeli state politics by interrogating Western complicity in Middle Eastern trauma.

Before we can reckon honestly with the internal state crisis under Netanyahu, we need to own up to the self-serving reasons why Western powers intervened in regional politics in the past.

Still not an easy topic!

But definitely important for returning dignity to all.

#Humanism #Politics

https://onlysky.media/mclark/israel-and-the-west-western-complicity-in-middle-eastern-trauma/

My favourite part of article-writing is stepping away for a bit before a final once-over. Not only is it a great excuse for a cuppa, but it also always helps me solve those wee fiddly bits in phrasing and flow that I'll never quite get just by staring at the screen without pause.

Apropos of nothing, then... time for a walk!

Oh, the difference in energy continues. :) No run this morning, but up and out of bed and working early just like old times. Love it. Happy Wednesday, CoSo!

Bedtime tune. Well done, Wisconsin. May we all build from your example. 💪

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/J4okxtKqL7s

It *might* be the wine this evening, but it might also just be the intrinsic loveliness of this place. Either way, a part of me cannot believe it's only been a little under a year since I first found this haven.

Everyone here is on their own path.

But *so* many here lean so deeply into acceptance of difference in a real way, a way of grace, that I feel a strong sense of togetherness all the same.

Thank you for choosing kindness where it counts.

Thank you @th3j35t3r, for making this possible.

It's striking how many folks on the street here are Jehovah's Witnesses. Today is the Memorial of Christ's Death in their faith - a day decidedly removed from the spectacle they feel other Christians incorrectly ascribe to the event - so many were packing up early to attend their service. One day I will write more about the intersection of poverty and certain faith traditions. (But not today!)

More promo work for an hour, then on to polishing up tomorrow's article (sorry, Westerners: I'm going to rap our knuckles even harder this time for complicity in regional trauma, before we'll be ready to look more maturely at Israeli state politics), and getting some BookTubes recorded tonight.

One will be for all my Patrons, and another two for my special-tier Patrons. It's about time I got everyone caught up on what I've been doing this past month, and what comes next! 👌

Ha. 😅 I'm currently putting together excerpts from Children of Doro for promo and BookTube purposes, and I had a good, rueful chuckle when I came to this part.

Gosh, if I could only think what real-world lumps I was holding in mind when I wrote this section...

(NB: The stylized word relates to the AI narrator's routine attempts to affect objectivity, by treating emotional experiences as distinctly biological categories of data. It's explained earlier on.)

#Indie #SFF #WritersOfCoSo

Sanity preserve me when folks think it's some great gotcha to claim that "pro-Nazi rhetoric" doesn't make sense in a contemporary context because the Nazis were a very specific historical group.

Huge "it's only Nazism if it comes from the Third Reich; otherwise it's just sparkling fascism" vibes.

And I am very, very tired of the word games we play while the world is genuinely hurting in oh so many ways.

This one is for my Colombian friends here. The flavours one won't see in the West!

😋

(No, I didn't try it. I was out on an errand! And now back to work! #AmWriting)

I know from experience that this is an addictive and deceptively nutritious recipe, so as soon as this loaf has finished resting it's time to wrap it and get it out of my sight. 😅

#CoSoBakes

My friend's on a medical diet, so for her birthday treat I had to go for a healthier snack even than my usual. Mashed bananas, carrots, oats, honey, and olive oíl make up the mains of these (now-resting) muffins and this (still-baking) loaf. Tasty! Vegan! Gluten-free! But you can definitely still feel like you're doing something good for yourself. Alack. 😅

#CoSoBakes

So... how is everyone spending today?

I'm making carrot-oat muffins for a friend's birthday, to start things off.

Then maybe just not looking at the internet for a while.

Y tú?

Just when I started to think I had transcended to a plane of being in which online nonsense couldn't bother me. 🙃 What are we even doing as a culture?

Okay. Today I started a 4-parter for #OnlySky. This series will offer key backdrop for current strife in Israeli national politics, by looking at why the West has such a difficult time talking about the Jewish state.

An easy topic? Definitely not. But it's important for us in the West especially to interrogate our own national complicity in global violence, the rise of toxic nationalism in many forms, and how to advocate for better going forward. ⬇️

#Humanism https://onlysky.media/mclark/israel-and-the-west-how-we-lost-nuance-with-jewish-state-politics/

Okay, loves.

Today's #Newsletter is on the "entertainment" side of things. I use John Wick 4 to reflect on "spectacles of violence" in general: the role of violence in art, the fantasies it can dangerously uphold, the hard realities it reflects, and how much a difference it makes to see the fact of violence in human life represented in a more mature and #Humanist way.

(I obviously loved the film. No spoilers, I promise!)

#CoSoFilms
#BetterWorldsTheory

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/on-john-wick-4-the-spectacle-of-violence

New week, new energy, back to early morning runs. What a difference a little hope makes. Morning, CoSo! 💫

With all love to my vindicated US friends, please don't let the Shit Show this week become cover for other political wrongs in process. Alec Karakatsanis is an advocate for carceral reform, and against judicial transgression. He has a thread today on the bird calling attention to a nominee for US Attorney who was credibly found to have committed felonies by denying constitutional rights to vulnerable people.

If this matters to you, I hope you'll make your voice heard.

https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1642568911177523203

Today the first of the Semana Santa food hampers went out. As with Navidad, through-traffic slows here & begging folk suffer. My boxes include rice, beans, lentils*, cooking oíl, bouillon for flavour, powdered milk for families, panela (sugar), arepa flour, & a tin of tuna or sardines for Holy Week's fish meal.

(*Lentils cooked with sugar help keep the littlest fed.)

Whatever serves your communities best, thank you for doing what you can.

#MutualAid uplifts us all, in good & hard times alike.