(no subject)

[gwydion]

* "Markets are all about the timing – and Argentina got clocked:" https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/30/markets-are-all-about-the-timing-and-argentina-got-clocked

* "Alex Salmond resigns from SNP after sexual misconduct claims:" https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/29/alex-salmond-resigns-from-snp-after-sexual-misconduct-claims

* "Trump threatens to withdraw from World Trade Organization :" https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/trump-threatens-to-withdraw-from-world-trade-organization.html

* "Trump to Back $200 Billion China Tariffs as Early as Next Week, Sources Say:" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/trump-said-to-back-200-billion-china-tariffs-early-as-next-week

* "Trump Says China To Blame For Hurting U.S.-North Korean Relations:" https://www.npr.org/2018/08/30/643219155/trump-says-china-to-blame-for-hurting-u-s-north-korean-relations

* "Man charged with making death threats over Trump editorials:" https://apnews.com/4f9fc2487e8c4c9a94703e32029bd91c/Man-threatened-to-kill-newspaper-staff-over-Trump-editorials

* You can tell they are lying that this is about balancing the budget, because if they did care, the first thing they would do towards that is repeal the tax cut for the rich they just passed. "Trump cancels pay raises for almost 2 million federal workers:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/30/trump-cancels-pay-raises-federal-workers-804574

* "Trump cancels raise for federal workers, adds to GOP midterm woes:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-cancels-raise-for-federal-workers-adds-to-gop-midterm-woes-1310339651973?v=railb

* "Trump seeks to backtrack on 2017 comments on Comey firing:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/trump-without-evidence-says-nbc-altered-2017-interview-on-russia-idUSKCN1LF19Q

* "Trump personally lobbying GOP senators to flip on Sessions:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/29/trump-sessions-firing-senators-white-house-803922

* "Trump presses Supreme Court chief justice for action on Russia dossier:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-dossier/trump-presses-supreme-court-chief-justice-for-action-on-dossier-idUSKCN1LF06A

* Is it just me, or did 45's Thursday tweetstorm look an awful lot like Muppet armed panic over the Mueller probe?

* "Trump and Cohen planned to buy decades of damaging tabloid stories:" https://www.axios.com/trump-michael-cohen-buy-stories-national-enquirer-3df09f4c-f26f-41f0-a843-9d380403187e.html

* "National Enquirer's favors for Trump were bad for business: AP:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/national-enquirer-s-favors-for-trump-were-bad-for-business-ap-1310338627722?v=railb

* "A president exposed to blackmail:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/a-president-exposed-to-blackmail-1310254147504?v=railb

* "Papadopoulos accepts plea deal with Mueller after weeks of uncertainty:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/weeks-uncertainty-papadopoulos-decides-accept-plea-deal-mueller/story?id=57483474

* "W.H. ethics lawyer Passantino leaving administration:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-ethics-lawyer-stefan-passantino-leaving-administration-n905031

* "Trump laments Sessions accent and pedigree:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-laments-sessions-accent-and-pedigree-1310253635814?v=railb

* I am furious about this. "Questions linger on release of candidate's private documents:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/questions-linger-on-release-of-candidate-s-private-documents-1310341187517?v=railb

* Please, please vote in November. "What will happen if Republicans retain the House in November?:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/what-will-happen-if-republicans-retain-the-house-in-november-1310256707882?v=railb

* "Big oil asks government to protect it from climate change:" https://apnews.com/4adc5a2a2e6b45df953ebcba6b63d171

* "Tofurky and the ACLU Are Teaming Up to Defeat Missouri's 'Fake Meat' Bill:" http://fortune.com/2018/08/28/tofurky-aclu-missouri-fake-meat-bill/

* "Justice Department sides with group suing Harvard over use of race in admissions:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/30/justice-department-sides-with-students-suing-harvard-over-use-of-race-in-admissions-804156

* "California Becomes First State To End Cash Bail After 40-Year Fight:" https://www.npr.org/2018/08/28/642795284/california-becomes-first-state-to-end-cash-bail?utm_source=tumblr.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20180829

* "Trump raises bar on dissonance with 'fantastic job' claim on P.R.:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-raises-bar-on-dissonance-with-fantastic-job-claim-on-p-r-1310340163651?v=railb

* They are also deporting American citizens and demanding they apply for entry as Aliens. "Washington Post: US denying passports to Hispanic Americans in South Texas:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/30/politics/us-denying-passports-to-american-citizens/index.html

* "Washington Post: Americans being denied passports:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/washington-post-americans-being-denied-passports-1310251075973?v=railb

* "Louis C.K. Put Me in a Lose-Lose Situation:" http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/louis-c-k-put-me-in-a-lose-lose-situation.html

* "This 12-year-old girl is being driven out of her town because she's transgender:" https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/3ky94k/this-12-year-old-girl-was-driven-out-of-her-town-for-being-transgender

* "Number 17- Rest In Power Dejanay Stanton:" https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/08/number-17-rest-in-power-dejanay-stanton.html

* "California Just Became The First US State To Condemn Surgeries On Intersex Children:" https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/azeenghorayshi/california-intersex-surgeries

* "Why STD Rates Are Higher Than They’ve Ever Been:" http://time.com/5381625/std-rates-funding/

* Thursday evening was social night, and one of the guests brought shockingly good gluten free brownies. Unfortunately, though I opened the door for LM to come out to see the guests, she stayed in Squirrel's room. He says she's a bit under the weather, which may account for it.

I have mentioned three cats, but I usually only write about the two younger ones. This is because LM is elderly, in frail health, and her eyesight is failing. Squirrel is her primary human, so she mostly stays in his room. It has a full attatched bathroom and thi is plenty of room for a cat who really does spend most of her time sleeping. We let her decide for herself the extent of socialization with the other beasts. Some weeks, she bangs for me to open the door, usually when Squirrel is asleep or out, and when she signals she's had enough, I shoo any junior beasties out of her room and close it back up. Some times the door is only open for an hour. Sometimes it is open all evening and/or all night. Sometimes she goes several days not wanting to interact at all; sometimes she really wants company. I generally open the door on nights we have guests, as Tavy, who is the main stressor for her generally spends that time sleeping on my bed, and Livia generally spends it in her hide. (Tavy can best be described as aggressively social with other cats and rather intense; Livia shares LM's interest in hanging out peacefully in the vicinity of other clowder members, but it's not entirely clear she can see the difference between the two. Generally there is a little hissing when I first open the door and the junior kitties run over to see LM, but they all settle in fairly quickly unless Tavy is in one of his hyper moods, in which case I remove him). LM likes to come out and check out guests once they've settled down and stopped moving. She's not outgoing with guests the way Mache was up until the last few years she was alive, but she likes to hang out and the vicinity and see who is there.

I want to make clear that even though I don't write about her as much since Tavy came, I do love her very much. The arrangements currently in place are ones we made to allow her to spend her sunset years in comfort and to give her as much control over her interaction level as possible in order to limit both the stress of isolation and the stress of socialization, if that makes sense.

* So here's where I am on the Preacher. I was someone who read the comics starting from the original release. They were cool for their time, but they don't age well and my tolerance for things like the ubiquitous casual homophobia, the ableism, the fatphobia, rape as a running joke, and the two dimensional smurfette not like other girls version of Tulip have dropped dramatically in the intervening time. I literally just took my whole collection of originals to the comic store to sell on Monday because I can't imagine ever wanting to reread them despite the bits that do remain interesting in them, like the design and deconstruction of Cassidy, or Jesse Custor's relationship to God.

The show is kind of a hot mess too, but I significantly prefer it despite it's faults (the mess they made of Tulip in season two, the fatphobia, the ableism, the treatment of the characters of colour who aren't Tulip). I really love the Tulip redesign. This version is a real improvement despite some problems. I am fine with the way they changed up things like the Eccarius interlude. I really appreciate them going with a bisexual Cassidy, though I rather wish they would go further in exploring that, and I have some worries that they may be too in love with the character to show the darker aspects from the comics. I liked what they did with the angel and demon duo. I have serious concerns about the use of Hitler as a character, but apparently Tulip beating up and killing NAZIs was a thing I very much needed to see even though I had no idea that was a thing I desperately wanted until they were all on a bus to hell.

So basically, the show is problematic as hell and I don't really trust it, but I keep watching it because the things it does well it does really well. I watch it warily, sometimes wincing, but damned if this wasn't my favorite season even if I disliked a whole big storyline (Allfather, Humperdoo) that was ironically too much like the original characters despite the changes in sequence within the narrative and most of the plot.

So I keep watching for Tulip and for the bits of brilliance like the Eccarius plot and out of curiosity to see how they will make the pieces they kept from the original fit with the different story they are often telling, if that makes sense.

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

* "Fires in Greece: how to help:" https://medium.com/@theo.k/fires-in-greece-how-to-help-41ad32fc9232

* Practical ways to protest with scripts. "On the Helsinki summit, election integrity and Mueller:" https://medium.com/@Celeste_pewter/on-the-helsinki-summit-election-integrity-and-mueller-b8ed1acde2c0

* Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is doing a fundraiser for legal defense of refugee children in ICE detention. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/deliver-them-from-the-hands-of-the-wicked/

* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/

* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border

This has a call script to help you talk your Republican Senator into voting for the Keep Families Together Act: http://rockinhamburger.tumblr.com/post/175022988673/captacorn-marvelsmostwanted-heres-a-call

* 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

* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? 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/

* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion

* 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.comn