DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Code Base in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse.

As always, if it weren't for the actual suffering of real people, and destruction which will require years to undo, I'd welcome the opportunity for people to finally see what chaotic fools these guys are. But also as always, regular people paying attention didn't vote for this shit, the true believers love the chaos, and the voters who swing the elections aren't paying attention.

Along with everything else, Trump is rapidly destroying accessibility measures for people with disabilities.

In the historical context, I knew about The Capitol Crawl, but I hadn't realized that the Christian Right opposed the ADA:

After the proposed Americans With Disabilities Act stalled in Congress in 1990 (in part due to opposition from evangelical Christian lobbies), the legislation was spurred forward in part by a protest known as the Capitol Crawl. Disabled people abandoned their mobility devices and dragged themselves up the steps of the Capitol building by hand. The ADA was signed into law a few months later.

which includes a link to this other piece that states:

When the ADA was on its way to becoming law, some Christian groups opposed all or some of it, including the National Association of Evangelicals, the Association of Christian Schools International, and, as reported in The New York Times in 1991, "a coalition of churches, backed by the White House, [that] lobbied for a blanket exclusion on the ground that to include religious institutions would violate the doctrine of the separation of church and state."

As a result, religious entities are exempt from Title III of the ADA, which prohibits descrimination on the basis of disability in places that provide goods or services to the public, such as stores, restaurants, theaters, banks and medical offices.

Mm-hmm.

Anyway, this seems like it will make a lot of people's lives much worse.

via E. Messily

When Salvador Dalí Created a Chilling Anti-Venereal Disease Poster During World War II.

I have a special fondness for the green/bright yellow color scheme for outdoor night scenes in midcentury sci-fi and horror illustrations, or things like Nancy Drew covers. (Somehow I think I'm speaking directly to lw in this comment, who doesn't necessarily agree but has a parallel observation of his own.)

Moby Hicks writes: It's a touching essay (gift link), but the idea of a using a waitress as cheap conversion therapy seems really tawdry. The other thing I wondered is, how much different "the waitress at Hooters understands me in a way my dad doesn't" is from "the waitress at Hooters is laughing at my jokes because she likes me"? In terms of being projection.

(Gift link courtesy of this guy)

Heebie's take: That is a good essay. On the second point, Aren't the two are qualitatively different? One is a sincere extension of kindness, apart from her job, and the other is a performance which is central to the job.

Also I guess Hooters references come in pairs, because I just recently saw this:

Gifted link of the Atlantic article. (Thanks, Moby)

So fucking wild. As lurid points out, there will surely be more details unfolding.

Mossy Character writes: Sino-Metals Leach Zambia just seems too on the nose.

Heebie's take: Holy shit that's depressing. But yeah: that's the literal name of the company?!?