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May. 16th, 2018 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* "Months After Election, Italy's Populist Parties Seek More Time To Negotiate Coalition:" https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/14/611037582/months-after-election-italys-populist-parties-seek-more-time-to-negotiate-coalit
* "Swedish enforcers burn down Sami 'kåta' teepee:" https://www.thelocal.se/20180411/swedish-government-burns-down-sami-kta-teepee
* "Acting ethics chief flags Trump financial disclosure form for Rod Rosenstein:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-financial-disclosure-form-released-by-ethics-office-live-updates/
* "Trump's financial disclosure report released, says president 'fully reimbursed' Michael Cohen:" https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/trumps-financial-disclosure-report-released.html
* "Senate intelligence leaders: Russians schemed to help Trump:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/russians-schemed-to-help-trump-senate-intel-591882
* "Mueller issues grand jury subpoenas to Trump adviser's social media...:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-mueller/mueller-issues-grand-jury-subpoenas-to-trump-advisers-social-media-consultant-idUSKCN1IH2OB
* This is deeply concerning as someone selectively erasing permanent records from a government database to cover up a crime suggests... terrifying things about the crumbling of our government. "Missing Files Motivated the Leak of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records:" https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/missing-files-motivated-the-leak-of-michael-cohens-financial-records
* "Former Trump campaign aide is helping Russian firm shed sanctions:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/12/politics/washington-lobbying-trump-era/index.html
* "Tillerson warns of ethical crisis among U.S. leaders in speech:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/rex-tillerson-speech-ethics-591876
* Don't hold your breath on the House. "Senate Approves Overturning FCC's Net Neutrality Repeal:" https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/16/611598361/senate-approves-overturning-fccs-net-neutrality-repeal
* "Democrats Flip a Pennsylvania Seat, Making 41 Since Trump’s Inauguration:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-flip-a-pennsylvania-seat-making-41-since-trumps-inauguration-3
* "Trump floats 'closing up the country for a while' over border security:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/05/politics/donald-trump-border-wall-close-country-remark/index.html
* "Number 10- Rest In Power and Peace Nino Fortson:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/number-10-rest-in-power-and-peace-nino.html
* "Number 10? Deceased Black Trans Woman's Body Found In Dallas:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/number-10-deceased-black-trans-womans.html
* "RIP TyJanae Moore:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/rip-tyjanae-moore.html
* "Texas Club Attendee Told To Remove The Makeup:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/texas-club-attendee-told-to-remove.html
* "Are You Moving An Embassy?:"
* "Trump Wants The U.S. To 'Be Cool' About China:"
* "Sean Hannity Puts The President To Bed Each Night:"
* "Glenda Jackson Moved From Acting To Politics:"
* "A Boy and His Frog:"
* I've been pretty exhausted just generally in the past week and Tavy's been particularly cuddly and whenever I try to get ready to leave my bed, Tavy climbs on top of me and falls instantly asleep, which tends to pin me in place because I'm not a monster. So I've been doing a lot of reading.
I really liked Moon Over Soho, despite the end being dead easy to see coming. I love the wold and the characters and the set up.
Charmed and Dangerous: Ten Tales of Gay Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy only had one dud story which is impressive in any anthology, particularly a multiple author anthology. I am very glad m/m supernatural romance is a thing, as I honestly like witch detectives solving mysteries and it's legitimately a pleasure to get away from the same old same old het love triangle with usually a super possessive werewolf and vampire fighting over a woman with weaker powers. (I have always felt this "problem" would best be solved with either a threesome or dumping the assholes and finding someone less borderline abusive to date depending). Anyway, even if the gay cop gets a new partner who turns out to be gay or bi and they solve a mystery and end up in bed thing, is also a tad samey, but less annoying because less domestic abuse and pointless drama, and I here for the plot anyway and mostly skip or skim the porn where present (Het or m/m, for the most part, I'm not into whatever the writer is, so it' not going to interest me much unless there is also dialog.) Charmed and dangerous has the usual range from a little bit of kissing to hard core and a bit kinky that one generally finds in straight supernatural romance. It also has some stories that do not fall into the supernatural cop/private Eye genre. Ginn Hale did something grim and haunting about an old revolutionary coming to grips with the new dystopia that grew up on the ashes of the old. K.J Charles did a short story for a new spin off from the Charm of Magpies series with Queer Victorians doing magic. Jordan Castillo Price had a Medium and his lover facing off against MRAs while in search of a haunting. Andrea Speed has an extremely silly story that was way lighter in tone than the rest, but a fine palate cleanser. There is also a Charlie Cochet that I found annoying in exactly the way I came to dislike in the equivalent het fantasy stories with chosen ones and imprint rapey forced pairings. Not to my taste, but not a problem given how much I enjoyed the rest.
I then spent a couple hours attempting to read "An Infamous Mistress," which is meant to be a biography of Dally the Tall, who lived a very interesting I life I very much wanted to learn about. I say attempted as it was written by genealogists and read like it. I got mid way through chapter five wading through complicated genealogical history of everyone vaguely connected to her family through blood, marriage, or sex, and I just... gave up, Dally herself having been only occasionally mentioned up to this point and my interest in her career as a demi-rep and her experiences in the french revolution weren't enough to get me much past a hundredish years of her Aunt's lover's family history. I would still like to read a biography of her, but not this one.
I turned to the third ILL in the stack. The fact that it was not something I read in grad school, despite it being out then, should have been a red flag, but it had good research on the early middle ages in the Eastern Roman Empire and it's early encounters with Islam. I was only a few pages in when I hit something not flagrantly antisemitic, but a rattle of the snakes tail, which put me on my guard for something less ambiguous. Several more pages in I hit the first openly, obviously antisemitic attack on Jewish people. I say first, though I tossed the book in the return pile. My feeling is, if they are going that overboard in the first chapter why wait to see ho bad it's going to get. So that's a no.
I also watched The Promise, over which I ugly cried long enough to seriously distress Tavy. This is the Oscar Isaac/Charlotte Le Bon/christian Bale movie about the Armenian genocide. It also turned out to have folks like Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, Tom Hollander, Jean Reno, and James Cromwell in it. I'd not, as far as I can tell seen Marwan Kenzari before, but I'd certainly like to see more of him. This movie is not an easy one to watch for pretty much the same reason that Schindler's List isn't something people watch for fun. The Armenian genocide was right up there with worst things that can happen to people when a government goes full on industrial scale ethnic cleansing, and it barely gets mentioned in history textbooks if it gets mentioned at all. (I remember that my high school history text glossed over it in a sentence or two, despite being a high end college level World history book that did a good job with WWI and the Ottoman empire/Turkey politically, which I know is like describing a text book's description of Germany in the first half of the twentieth century with only brief mention of the holocaust, but that's more than was in any of the high School textbooks in the districts where I taught that barely mentioned the Ottoman Empire and Turkey outside of the war contexts didn't mention the genocide at all.) The genocide is something we should remember and talk about. I am glad this movie exists, and I wish more people would see it.
* In other news, Squirrel and I are in the throws of the Spring Fire Inspection Cleaning, so I also put in a couple of hours on that. I know I need to be doing another ebay auction to try to raise money for bills, but I keep wearing myself out with everything else.
* I used all my money on housing and insurance March, and April it all went to housing and car things. I need the car to get around as I am disabled. I need to raise about $150 to finish catching up. If you'd like to chip in: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Want to help people on the Big Island of Hawaii? https://www.gofundme.com/hawaiinaturaldisastersrelief
* How to help Rohingya refugees: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/asia/rohingya-aid-myanmar-bangladesh.html?emc=edit_nn_20171012&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=50784086&te=1&_r=0
* Help fight for Net Neutrality restoration: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/170010496350/democrats-are-just-one-vote-shy-of-restoring-net
* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey
* Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/
* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* "Swedish enforcers burn down Sami 'kåta' teepee:" https://www.thelocal.se/20180411/swedish-government-burns-down-sami-kta-teepee
* "Acting ethics chief flags Trump financial disclosure form for Rod Rosenstein:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-financial-disclosure-form-released-by-ethics-office-live-updates/
* "Trump's financial disclosure report released, says president 'fully reimbursed' Michael Cohen:" https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/trumps-financial-disclosure-report-released.html
* "Senate intelligence leaders: Russians schemed to help Trump:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/russians-schemed-to-help-trump-senate-intel-591882
* "Mueller issues grand jury subpoenas to Trump adviser's social media...:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-mueller/mueller-issues-grand-jury-subpoenas-to-trump-advisers-social-media-consultant-idUSKCN1IH2OB
* This is deeply concerning as someone selectively erasing permanent records from a government database to cover up a crime suggests... terrifying things about the crumbling of our government. "Missing Files Motivated the Leak of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records:" https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/missing-files-motivated-the-leak-of-michael-cohens-financial-records
* "Former Trump campaign aide is helping Russian firm shed sanctions:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/12/politics/washington-lobbying-trump-era/index.html
* "Tillerson warns of ethical crisis among U.S. leaders in speech:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/rex-tillerson-speech-ethics-591876
* Don't hold your breath on the House. "Senate Approves Overturning FCC's Net Neutrality Repeal:" https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/16/611598361/senate-approves-overturning-fccs-net-neutrality-repeal
* "Democrats Flip a Pennsylvania Seat, Making 41 Since Trump’s Inauguration:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-flip-a-pennsylvania-seat-making-41-since-trumps-inauguration-3
* "Trump floats 'closing up the country for a while' over border security:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/05/politics/donald-trump-border-wall-close-country-remark/index.html
* "Number 10- Rest In Power and Peace Nino Fortson:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/number-10-rest-in-power-and-peace-nino.html
* "Number 10? Deceased Black Trans Woman's Body Found In Dallas:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/number-10-deceased-black-trans-womans.html
* "RIP TyJanae Moore:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/rip-tyjanae-moore.html
* "Texas Club Attendee Told To Remove The Makeup:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/05/texas-club-attendee-told-to-remove.html
* "Are You Moving An Embassy?:"
* "Trump Wants The U.S. To 'Be Cool' About China:"
* "Sean Hannity Puts The President To Bed Each Night:"
* "Glenda Jackson Moved From Acting To Politics:"
* "A Boy and His Frog:"
* I've been pretty exhausted just generally in the past week and Tavy's been particularly cuddly and whenever I try to get ready to leave my bed, Tavy climbs on top of me and falls instantly asleep, which tends to pin me in place because I'm not a monster. So I've been doing a lot of reading.
I really liked Moon Over Soho, despite the end being dead easy to see coming. I love the wold and the characters and the set up.
Charmed and Dangerous: Ten Tales of Gay Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy only had one dud story which is impressive in any anthology, particularly a multiple author anthology. I am very glad m/m supernatural romance is a thing, as I honestly like witch detectives solving mysteries and it's legitimately a pleasure to get away from the same old same old het love triangle with usually a super possessive werewolf and vampire fighting over a woman with weaker powers. (I have always felt this "problem" would best be solved with either a threesome or dumping the assholes and finding someone less borderline abusive to date depending). Anyway, even if the gay cop gets a new partner who turns out to be gay or bi and they solve a mystery and end up in bed thing, is also a tad samey, but less annoying because less domestic abuse and pointless drama, and I here for the plot anyway and mostly skip or skim the porn where present (Het or m/m, for the most part, I'm not into whatever the writer is, so it' not going to interest me much unless there is also dialog.) Charmed and dangerous has the usual range from a little bit of kissing to hard core and a bit kinky that one generally finds in straight supernatural romance. It also has some stories that do not fall into the supernatural cop/private Eye genre. Ginn Hale did something grim and haunting about an old revolutionary coming to grips with the new dystopia that grew up on the ashes of the old. K.J Charles did a short story for a new spin off from the Charm of Magpies series with Queer Victorians doing magic. Jordan Castillo Price had a Medium and his lover facing off against MRAs while in search of a haunting. Andrea Speed has an extremely silly story that was way lighter in tone than the rest, but a fine palate cleanser. There is also a Charlie Cochet that I found annoying in exactly the way I came to dislike in the equivalent het fantasy stories with chosen ones and imprint rapey forced pairings. Not to my taste, but not a problem given how much I enjoyed the rest.
I then spent a couple hours attempting to read "An Infamous Mistress," which is meant to be a biography of Dally the Tall, who lived a very interesting I life I very much wanted to learn about. I say attempted as it was written by genealogists and read like it. I got mid way through chapter five wading through complicated genealogical history of everyone vaguely connected to her family through blood, marriage, or sex, and I just... gave up, Dally herself having been only occasionally mentioned up to this point and my interest in her career as a demi-rep and her experiences in the french revolution weren't enough to get me much past a hundredish years of her Aunt's lover's family history. I would still like to read a biography of her, but not this one.
I turned to the third ILL in the stack. The fact that it was not something I read in grad school, despite it being out then, should have been a red flag, but it had good research on the early middle ages in the Eastern Roman Empire and it's early encounters with Islam. I was only a few pages in when I hit something not flagrantly antisemitic, but a rattle of the snakes tail, which put me on my guard for something less ambiguous. Several more pages in I hit the first openly, obviously antisemitic attack on Jewish people. I say first, though I tossed the book in the return pile. My feeling is, if they are going that overboard in the first chapter why wait to see ho bad it's going to get. So that's a no.
I also watched The Promise, over which I ugly cried long enough to seriously distress Tavy. This is the Oscar Isaac/Charlotte Le Bon/christian Bale movie about the Armenian genocide. It also turned out to have folks like Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, Tom Hollander, Jean Reno, and James Cromwell in it. I'd not, as far as I can tell seen Marwan Kenzari before, but I'd certainly like to see more of him. This movie is not an easy one to watch for pretty much the same reason that Schindler's List isn't something people watch for fun. The Armenian genocide was right up there with worst things that can happen to people when a government goes full on industrial scale ethnic cleansing, and it barely gets mentioned in history textbooks if it gets mentioned at all. (I remember that my high school history text glossed over it in a sentence or two, despite being a high end college level World history book that did a good job with WWI and the Ottoman empire/Turkey politically, which I know is like describing a text book's description of Germany in the first half of the twentieth century with only brief mention of the holocaust, but that's more than was in any of the high School textbooks in the districts where I taught that barely mentioned the Ottoman Empire and Turkey outside of the war contexts didn't mention the genocide at all.) The genocide is something we should remember and talk about. I am glad this movie exists, and I wish more people would see it.
* In other news, Squirrel and I are in the throws of the Spring Fire Inspection Cleaning, so I also put in a couple of hours on that. I know I need to be doing another ebay auction to try to raise money for bills, but I keep wearing myself out with everything else.
* I used all my money on housing and insurance March, and April it all went to housing and car things. I need the car to get around as I am disabled. I need to raise about $150 to finish catching up. If you'd like to chip in: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Want to help people on the Big Island of Hawaii? https://www.gofundme.com/hawaiinaturaldisastersrelief
* How to help Rohingya refugees: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/asia/rohingya-aid-myanmar-bangladesh.html?emc=edit_nn_20171012&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=50784086&te=1&_r=0
* Help fight for Net Neutrality restoration: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/170010496350/democrats-are-just-one-vote-shy-of-restoring-net
* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey
* Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/
* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com