Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* "Trump to Push Other Leaders on North Korea as UN Assembly Meets:" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-14/north-korea-launched-missile-over-japan-toward-pacific-ocean

* "Tube blast is terror incident, say police:" http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41278545

* "Trump's tweet on London attack draws ire from U.K. officials:" http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/15/trump-london-bombing-terrorists-scotland-yard-242761

* Someone needs to explain to Devin Nunes what "recused" means.

* The Republican War on Rule of Law and Corruption Over Site continues. "Trump administration withholds almost all Mar-a-Lago visitor logs:" http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/secret-service-maralago-logs/index.html

* "California legislature passes bill requiring presidential candidates to release tax returns:" http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/350789-california-legislature-passes-bill-requiring-presidential-candidates-to

* "Senate panel eyes new bills to protect Mueller:" http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/14/politics/robert-mueller-protection-bills-senate/index.html

* "Anjali Ameer Makes Indian Movie History:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2017/09/anjali-ameer-makes-indian-movie-history.html

* "A Christian Group Is Paying For Transgender People's Surgeries To Atone For The Church's Discrimination:" http://www.refinery29.com/2017/09/171280/christian-group-transgender-surgery?utm_content=buffer3f97

* "age & queerness in fandom:" http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/165244337200/age-queerness-in-fandom

* Bring tissues. "Curmudgeons:" https://vimeo.com/159449591

* I know I haven't written about the people who died in a nursing home literally across the street from a working hospital with power, basically because the idea of it is so distressing and horrible and able bodied person lazy and pointless, because how fucking much effort would i have taken to move vulnerable people literally across the street to safety? I bet a lot less than setting up fans that weren't enough, and why the fuck wasn't the AC hooked up to the back up generator? They had power to run fans. That has me furious about asshole penny pinching nursing home admin who gave no fucks for vulnerable elders in their care. The place my Mom chose for herself not only had a back up generator, but a system where if the back up fucking failed in a major storm or flood there was a third emergency system where she could hook up her oxygen machine and survive like that for days. how do I know this? Because we talked over her contingency plans in advance of a big storm their the last winter before she died. (She liked to talk these sorts of things over with another competent adult, and my father being dead, and me sharing the trait of having multiple contingency plans being a comfort, she was apt to do this with me). They had a bus evacuation system if they needed to move everyone with special transport for the full nursing care building and designated evacuation locations depending on the disaster. It is possible to plan this shit out in advance if the people running a place are ethical. Those deaths didn't have to happen if anyone at all with a smidgen of authority gave too shits about the people in that facility, both as far as planning for predicable disaster (It's Florida. Hurricanes are seasonal and flooding a predictable thing that happens often enough to plan for.), and in the immediate "This isn't safe! We need to evacuate the medically fragile across the street" sense.

Well, it looks like a lot of people feel that way. The facility is closed as a crime scene, and there are likely to be a variety of criminal charges. Some of the likely charges have sentences of up to 30 years. Good. Lock the bastards up. Eight people died because of their callousness.

Well, it looks like a lot of people feel that way. The facility is closed as a crime scene, and there are likely to be a variety of criminal charges. Some of the likely charges have sentences of up to 30 years. Good. Lock the bastards up. Eight people died because of their callousness.

* "Harry Dean Stanton, Quintessential American Actor, Dies at 91:" http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harry-dean-stanton-dead-paris-texas-star-91-766020

* "Extreme Amazing Super-Chess! (Chess.):"

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* I got crap sleep again as I'm still recovering from the pneumococcal vaccine. There's a steady upward trend, and again, I'll happily trade a week or so of this for 10 or more times when I don't get pneumonia. I woke with the shakes, so gave myself an extra half hour nap, as often the reset helps. It did in this case, though I'm sluggish. I managed to get out at a reasonable time to Honest Mechanic. It's looking like a $60.00 valve job. I have strong hopes of this being the last of the car things needing doing. This is taking everything I have left for the month except car insurance, so I'm completely fucked for other bills, but engine health is important. I go back Tuesday.

When I got home, the B Disabled parking was open, and that's not much further than my actual stolen spot and has the added benefit of being right by B recycling. All I had to carry was the empty disposable tea cup from the mechanics, so I tossed it in the trash and checked the cardboard recycling. Thee was not only an ideal bottom pad shape, but also a flower box in the perfect shape to hold the thing open. It will lose shape as it soaks, but I left the car with the seating propped open to air and dry in the sun. This process has been slow, but there has been noticeable improvement. Squirrel has been changing the cardboard as he has access to it at work, and I'd guess there is about half as much water in there as there was the day I bailed, maybe less, as it's hard to tell how much is in the seats, but when I opened it, it's more a drip than a waterfall.

I came home to have the toilet paper holder fall off. I was expecting it as I had to epoxy the other end last week. There is no permanent solution as the guy who built this place was terrible, so I periodically have to reattach them. I ended up making a mess as my hands are shaky, but I've hopes of another 6-8 months till the next incident. Then I got to sweep and mop the kitchen floor as Squirrel lost a piece of the blender when he unloaded the dish washer. (He did search last night). I am happy it was on the floor as the next step was going to involve taking that whole side of the kitchen apart. Still, the shakes are well back.

Squirrels project we were doing the scavenger hunt earlier in the week to get low cost ingredients for went off beautifully by the way.

Want to donate to my property taxes (170$ Needed) and car repair ($60). Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* ...And I think I just killed the microwave by forgetting to turn the fan on before starting pasta on the stove top. I know better, but I'm exhausted and shaky so forgot. The fix for it is heartbreakingly easy according to the internet, The problem is, the asshole who built this place mounted things wrong. I can see half of the two screws I would need to unscrew to get the access panel open, but to unscrew them, I would have to dismount the entirety of the kitchen cabinets, which is absolutely out of the question physically. I am not tall enough with the ladder even if I did have several people to help me and somewhere to put everything in the fucking cabinets. Because the asshole who built my kitchen didn't measure anything correctly. I have unplugged it to make the screaming stop. There is a chance it will dry on it's own, as it did the other time I forgot to turn on the fan, but that time the alarm stopped in about half an hour and it's now been an hourish. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. A field trip into Squirrel's cave suggests he's broken the other micro wave. No fucking way can I afford a new one and where would I put it?

Addendum: 9:50. I plugged it in to see if I could reheat the tisane, and it is working again. Fuck, that was scary.

Addendum 9:58. Microwave starts screaming again. I'll try it again tomorrow.

* "On balloons.:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/165362192867/on-balloons

* Want to donate to my property taxes? (170$ Needed). Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

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

* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* How to help Flood victims in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/165235609582/woke-up-on-derse-f-f-f-fight

* How to help Caribbean victims of Irma: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/165240981876/hedaclara-hedaclara-hedaclara-guys-the

* "How to Help Hurricane Harvey Victims:" http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/08/27/how_to_help_hurricane_harvey_victims.html

* "Disaster Relief and Support for Libraries:" http://www.txla.org/news/2017/08/disaster-relief-and-support-for-libraries

* How to help the protesters and ordinary people in Venezuela: https://thewynne.tumblr.com/post/163738805241/softestjohn-fiftyeightminutes-softestjohn

* "Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide:" https://www.splcenter.org/20170814/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide

* A list of links to Charlottesville charities if you want to give the NAZIs a financial fuck you: https://twitter.com/SaraJBenincasa/status/896260623905861633

* How white Protesters can weaponize their whiteness: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/164390645622/alvaroarbeloa-vaspider-okay-friends-lets

* List of places to donate to help trans service members and fight the planned attack on active duty trans soldiers: https://vaspider.tumblr.com/post/163475550346/moonbian-hey-i-know-reblogging-posts-about-how

* Red Cross is taking donations for Western Wildfire Relief: http://www.redcross.org/local/oregon/ways-to-donate/wildfires

* (This is here as a reminder to me for later). "Can you recommend me some good books, essays, etc. about witches, witchcraft, witch trials in England?:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/164664427028/dear-pauline-can-you-recommend-me-some-good

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* Remember how after the big earthquake, the UN AID workers helpfully started a cholera epidemic in Haiti by not taking even the most basic precautions with their waste, and how devastating that was for the people of Haiti? Thanks to the hurricane and flooding, it's back.

* "Facts of Life and Death:" http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/10/facts-of-life-and-death.html

* I want Michelle Obama to be my president. This speech is really important. "Michelle Obama's call to conscience:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/michelle-obamas-call-conscience#break

* "Limbaugh: The left is obsessed with consent:"

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* Re: Women coming forward to talk about Donald Trump sexually Assaulting them. I believe the women.

* Republican woman discovers water is wet: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/151743509457/satyrday-jennytrout-nerdyblackfangirl

* Trump and his surrogates continue to insist that Trump was lying when he bragged about sexual assaulting women and ogling pageant contestants while they were changing despite a growing body of women, including Miss Teen USA contestants, corroborating his claims that he did committed these crimes.

* I keep thinking of my Mother as this Trump thing continues. ( TW Sexual Assault: )

* Now Trump is claiming an international cabal of bankers is controlling our country and if we don't rise up against Hillary Clinton she will come and destroy our national and our families in a very... Nuremburgy sounding speech. The chanting crowds terrify me.

* "What we can still learn from sexual harassment:" http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/10/10/what-can-still-learn-from-sexual-harassment/jCF5rxYbFMgE3bOKR984pI/story.html

* "Are you certain, Time Prophet?:" http://cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com/507275.html

* Fun fact: My parents met in and Anglo Saxon language class. They were language nerds. "20 Brilliant Anglo-Saxon Words:" http://mentalfloss.com/article/66533/20-brilliant-anglo-saxon-words

* "Not Just Clowning Around:"

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* "Evangelicals Stick with Donald Trump:"

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* "Outrage Court: Trigger Warnings:"

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* I would like to thank whichever of you sent Birthday money.

* I did finally get to watch Versailles, though it took a lot longer than I expected. I had heard the critical rumblings. My hope was that as for me the major players are real people for me, ones I read about and studied and have a genuine feel for. On paper I should adore this. It's relevant to a whole collection of my interests, and on top of that, I'm a year and a half in on an early modern kick and even read the horribly homophobic and disgustingly Freudian biography of Philippe a month or so ago that happened to be the only one we could find in English. (It was very well researched, but the analysis was embarrassingly bad, so bad it would make a great drinking game. Take a drink for each homophobic inference or Freudian reference. Take two drinks every time he makes a completely unsupported inference about motive based on Freudian theory alone. Take a shot for every time he insists that homosexuality is the mother's fault/self harm/not innate. Take two shots if he's claiming that the bisexuals are switching orientation every time they change partners. Take three shots if he's claiming that sex with the chevalier de Lorraine is humiliating, degrading, self punishment, etc., something I consider a very bold statement for a man who's never ucked him and who knows full well that he was so good in bed Louis considered recalling him a gift to his brother. *ahem*) Louis XIV is out of my period, sure, but I've been to Versailles, the Louvre, and Frontenbleu, read general histories of the period, and biographies of Louis, Montepason, et al.. I'm not an expert, but I'm certainly a reasonably well educated amateur. So my hope was, knowing the players, knowing the period, I should be fine where a general audience might struggle.

I was wrong. I had to watch the first episode twice, because I had trouble figuring out who was meant to be whom. It was easier with the men as the characters said their names often enough I could pick them up from context, but the women.... I assume the young lady the mother is trying to push at the King is Montespan from context, but I watched all three and I never noticed she and her mother being clearly identified. I did manage to make mental notes on who I guessed everyone was the second time through and it did make the next two episodes slightly more comprehensible. Unfortunately, I discovered a second problem at that point, which was that I would wander off into revery in the middle of dialog scenes and miss important details. I watched one scene early in the second episode five or six times because I kept missing a few key sentences while thinking of more interesting things. My concentration isn't what it was, but it simply isn't this bad unless there is something wrong with what I'm watching (or reading or listening to). I could not pay attention for a literal minute or two in a number of scenes. If it had been one evening, it might be attributed to tiredness or the fever that rises and falls like the Mile, but we are talking about four different days, one nearly a week before the others, I watched all of the Depardieu Cyrano today with no problem. Just saying. So something has to be wrong with the script/acting/and/or pacing. You be the judge. There were interesting bits here and there and some things I did not agree with, but mostly it simply as dull and lacking in something vital. It left me empty and unfullfilled after. I sat mulled it over doing dishes and I think it did not help that it was all loose threads and hardly any arc. People do things in it, but nothing much matters or changes except they murder a little person of African decent, an old guy in the woods, and some assassins. There were some interesting things going on racially in the third episode, but my ennui was too great to go back through a second time so I could write a proper analysis.

I just... It wasn't aweful, just mediocre, which is sad because they have all this access and ridiculous beauty and some really fascinating RL historical figures and somehow couldn't figure out how to make that riveting on my screen.

* Blood for the Blood God: http://dorktowerfeed.livejournal.com/447069.html

* ToS Rewatch:

- Balance of Terror. We can't afford mistakes "by any man aboard." What about the women aboard, Kirk? Enter the Romulans. Does flirting count as a "mistake?" And the paranoia sets in along with the racism, because this is fundamentally a cold war story. this reminds me very much of classic submarine pursuit movies with opposing commanders and stratagems. The acting is actually decent on this one, I do appreciate how well fleshed out the made the Romulan captain. It would be so much easier to make him two dimensional, but they actually did a good job writing him and his interactions allow us to infer things about their culture that really pay off two decades or so later when Spock goes to Romulus in TNG.

*****

* Hurricane Matthew has been catastrophic for the people of Haiti. 800 or more are dead and 60,000 or more displaced. Want to help? https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief?donationProdId=prod12750029&scode=RSG00000E017&gclid=COnZ5tmJys8CFRBEfgodzWoPXQ

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* This contains video of the murder, though he he dies of his injuries later in his cell. I'm linking it anyway as one can choose whether or not to click the video. "Jail Videos Reveal Black Inmate Died After Assault By Officers:" https://blackmattersus.com/17528-jail-videos-reveal-black-inmate-died-after-assault-by-officers/

* TW: Hate Crimes, Rape. "Gaycation Brazil:" https://www.viceland.com/en_us/video/brazil/56a90e3f59b6e07a13d27d01

* "Did Mike Pence Upstage Trump With His Strong Debate Performance?:"

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* "Don’t Paint All Clowns With The Same Giant Brush:"

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* "It Takes A Genius Like Donald Trump To Lose A Billion Dollars:"

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* Birthday Prezzies came today! A hand knitted 4th Doctor scarf, a ballet I am interested in, The Catherine Biography I am fond of and wanted for my collection, and "The Outlandish Knight: the Byzantine life of Steven Runican." This last looks fascinating and is about a queer historian. The chapters are organized in major arcana. There are lovely art reproduction postcards all through. I will need do go over everything properly later, but it is all delightful!

* "Gandalf Leads the Way on a Journey in the Dark:" http://www.fandomfollowing.com/gandalf-fellowship-journey-dark/

* Seeing Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart together in scene in Blunt Talk makes me happy.

* I keep thinking of Benjen Stark alternately as "Shrodinger's Benjen" and "Chekov's Benjen."

* ToS Rewatch:

- My dad and I watched these over and over in syndication in the vast SF wasteland that was 70's TV. I still salivate when I hear the end credit music because that was dinner time for a decade or so on Sunday nights. Eventually the movies came. Still we watched them when we could catch them, but I was losing patience with Shatner by the end of the '80's. Then I was a philosophy monk for a couple of years with very limited TV access. When I came to have TV access again everything was TNG, Tos was hard to catch, tapes of individual episodes cost two dollars to rent and they refused to put them out in sets which, and I had grown out of them, really. I loved most of the characters, but the flaws in logic and particularly third season plotting, and Shatner's acting and the insufferable Kirk made me... not all that excited when the movies came out. I still remember our out right fury that somehow we were all so much smarter than Spock in the Klingon trial one that we solved the "mystery" in seconds and it took Spock most of the movie. By the time the one where they handed over the movies to the TNG crew, we all mostly wanted to watch Kirk die a painful death forever and in this too, we were disappointed. I think I haven't seen these all as a group in literal decades, though I've caught the occational random episode now and then. I once knew them so well I could recite snatches of dialog at length, but now... no. I have no guarantee I have anything meaningful to say, and this may end up rather MST3000.

- The Man Trap. Does Rigley's Pleasure Planet become Riza? They recycle this plot several times, don't they? Borgia Plant! Shouldn't that be Canterella? Apparently the "Red Shirt" has not yet been invented as a trope, so a blue shirt must due. I'd swear there was a pilot before this one with Nurse Chapel's actor as second in command, and one of those annoying god-like aliens, but it looks like the marathon missed it. We're not that far in and I already want to hit Kirk. Or Shatner. Both really. Are they really using the flagship to deliver chili peppers to outposts? Sexual harassment is live and well for Yeoman Rand on the enterprise. I'd forgotten Sulu had Morticia Addams garden for some reason. So exactly how often does McCoy drug Kirk to sleep? I don't see why they couldn't stun it, put it in a cell with all the salt it can eat and release it on a desert planet with a salt sea. Did I miss something?

-Charlie X. I like the godlike alien episodes the least. I also liked the Twilight zone version of this plot better. Less sexual harassment. Speaking of which, we are on the second episode and here is eYeoman Rand getting sexually harassed for the second episode in a row. To be honest, I loathe this episode and it was a struggle to force myself to watch it. I think the high point is Uhuru sings about Spock while he plays for her and his tiny smile. I have become hypnotized by the construction of Rand's basket weave beehive wig, and also the different in fabric between Spock and McCoy's uniform. That godlike being is totally a human. They didn't even bother with ears or a forehead.

- Where No Man Has Gone Before. Wait, now Spock is also in the same ugly baby poop yellow turtleneck they occasionally put Kirk in instead of the blue from last episode. I can't wait until they sort out the uniform situation. The first psychic shrink on Star Trek. In the context of charlie X, no wonder suddenly super psychic Mitchell moving things with his mind makes them all jumpy. This love poem was from "back in 1996." And Dr. Dehner veers into the creepy "superior man" eugenics adjacent zone.

* TNG Rewatch, Season 5:

- Unification pt. 2. In retrospect this reminds me of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

- A Matter of Time. I love that Deanna and Dr. Crusher have realistic response to the shady visitor creeping. At the same time that centuries in the future women will still need strategies for dealing with creeps. I liked the philosophical argument. I appreciated them all not being idiots. The biggest hint is a t=real historian would be worried about the Observer effect.

- And here alas, is a break. We'll need to wait for the rest of season 5 to roll round again.

*****

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com