Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* I'm doing better, but I still tire easily and the physio is already getting ugly. This means I'm going to run out of things like energy and pain resistance without much warning.

The pain has been and continues to be stunning this week.

---

* "Israel says it will send more troops to Rafah, as fighting also rages in Gaza’s north:" https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-hamas-latest-05-16-2024-c7318fc513e79580082c0a80ae6878b6

* "Strike kills U.N. aid worker, injures another in southern Gaza:" https://www.npr.org/2024/05/14/1251272912/gaza-united-nations-un-aid-worker-killed

* "‘Outrageous’ arson attack forces UNRWA to temporarily shutter East Jerusalem compound:" https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/05/1149586

* "Israeli activists attack Gaza aid convoy, drawing U.S. condemnation and highlighting risk to aid work:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-gaza-aid-west-bank-settlers-united-nations/

* "Gaza: Israelis Attacking Known Aid Worker Locations:" https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/14/gaza-israelis-attacking-known-aid-worker-locations#:~:text=As%20of%20April%2030%2C%20the,injuring%20at%20least%20one%20more.

* It won't be enough. "US establishes Gaza pier to try to boost aid to hungry enclave:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-establishes-gaza-pier-try-boost-aid-hungry-enclave-2024-05-16/

* "if you are struggling with choosing which fundraisers to support, please consider donating to the following places providing medical aid, food, and other supplies to palestine at this time:" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/750500230956564480?source=share

* Links for various Palestinian Aid Organizations: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/750151174318112768?source=share

******
* "U.S. report says it's 'reasonable to assess' that Israel has violated humanitarian law:" https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250442216/u-s-report-says-reasonable-to-assess-that-israel-has-violated-humanitarian-law

* "Rep. Jayapal on Contradictions in State. Dept. Report on Israeli Conduct in Gaza:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/rep-jayapal-on-contradictions-in-state-dept-report-on-israeli-conduct-in-gaza-210763333765

* "Army Officer Resigns in Protest of ‘Unqualified’ U.S. Support to Israel:" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/13/us/army-officer-resigns-gaza-israel.html

* "Interior Dept staffer becomes first Jewish Biden appointee to publicly resign over war in Gaza:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/interior-dept-staffer-jewish-biden-appointee-publicly-resign-110272884

* "Member of Israel’s War Cabinet says he’ll quit the government June 8 unless there’s a new war plan:" https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-war-05-18-2024-3ac9d8e59198d5884d0faa6649a53e4f

* "Water cannon used to disperse anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv:" https://apnews.com/video/israel-hamas-war-protests-and-demonstrations-tel-aviv-israel-benjamin-netanyahu-14c6787047b940caa67d663c59c15702

* "Sen. Lindsey Graham Suggests Nuking Gaza, Calls Hiroshima ‘the Right Decision’:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-lindsey-graham-suggests-nuking-gaza-calls-hiroshima-the-right-decision

* "Republican Congressman Joins Lindsey Graham in Calls to Nuke Gaza:" https://newrepublic.com/post/181580/republican-congressman-greg-murphy-nuke-gaza

* "Pro-Palestinian protests continue on I-5 overpass in Bellingham:" https://mybellinghamnow.com/news/297792-pro-palestinian-protests-continue-on-i-5-overpass-in-bellingham/

* "Pro-Palestine encampment forms on WWU campus:" https://mybellinghamnow.com/news/297792-pro-palestine-encampment-forms-on-wwu-campus/

* "Business titans privately urged NYC mayor to use police on Columbia protesters, chats show:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/business-leaders-chat-group-eric-adams-columbia-protesters/

* "Pro-Palestinian Student Protesters Celebrated for ‘Moral Clarity’ at ‘The People’s Graduation’:" https://time.com/6979149/pro-palestinian-student-protesters-the-peoples-graduation/

* "50 powerful photos from ACT UP's pro-Palestine rally at the GLAAD Media awards:" https://www.advocate.com/news/act-up-glaad-media-protest

******

---

* "The changing face of protest:" https://restofworld.org/2024/facial-recognition-government-protest-surveillance/#/an-end-to-privacy

* "A growing number of Americans end up in Russian jails. The prospects for their release are unclear:" https://apnews.com/article/russia-prisoners-swap-gershkovich-whelan-putin-2a53c30a7ee686ee85de412ee833d154

* "Slovak PM Fico's attacker may not have acted alone, says minister:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/worst-fears-slovak-pms-health-are-over-says-deputy-prime-minister-2024-05-19/

* "German far-right leader intentionally used banned Nazi slogan, court rules:" https://www.politico.eu/article/german-far-right-leader-found-guilty-of-using-banned-nazi-slogan-bjorn-hocke-afd-alternative-for-germany-thuringia/

* "Venezuela’s barred opposition candidate is now the fiery surrogate of her lesser-known replacement:" https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-presidential-election-maduro-opposition-machado-edmundo-aecb49c26aba7dd7c98c0139282c8ade

* "Search and rescue efforts underway as helicopter carrying Iran's President Raisi suffers 'crash landing':" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/helicopter-carrying-irans-president-suffers-hard-landing-state-tv-says-rcna152961

* "Vatican Museums staff challenge the pope with a legal bid for better terms and treatment:" https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/ap-top-news/2024/05/13/vatican-museums-staff-challenge-the-pope-with-a-legal-bid-for-better-terms-and-treatment

* I have serious concerns. "Seeking Access to Congo’s Metals, White House Aims to Ease Sanctions: A deal to allow the Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler to cash out his mining positions in the Democratic Republic of Congo has enraged human rights activists and some government officials.:" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/politics/congo-cobalt-us-sanctions.html

* "Biden announces new tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, including electric vehicles:" https://www.npr.org/2024/05/14/1250987721/biden-china-tariffs-electric-vehicles

* "US issues warning about possible terror attacks at LGBTQ+ Pride events worldwide:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/05/20/pride-month-warning-us-state-department/

* "US to send additional $2 billion in Ukraine aid, Blinken says:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-send-additional-2-billion-ukraine-aid-blinken/story?id=108534198

* "US greenlights potential weapons sale to Israel:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/14/us-greenlights-potential-weapons-sale-israel-00158045

* "Justice Department formally moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug in historic shift:" https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-rescheduling-drug-policy-biden-15b43441670757b0c2bfa36731e47d07

* "Over 20 Republican-led states are challenging Biden admin's LGBTQ-inclusive Title IX rule:" https://www.advocate.com/news/title-ix-lgbtq-lawsuits

* "Supreme Court orders Louisiana to use congressional map with additional Black district in 2024 vote:" https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-supreme-court-congressional-redistricting-black-representation-201c1fa9e494ad0d88e4d9ed8328eae0

* "A 'Stop The Steal' Symbol Was Displayed At Alito's House In 2021:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-samuel-alito-stop-the-steal-flag_n_6646913ae4b0dd63cd2bd6ae

* "Alito offers strikingly petty excuse for upside-down flag, affirms pro-Trump bias:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/alito-offers-strikingly-petty-excuse-for-upside-down-flag-affirms-pro-trump-bias-211175493923

* "Justice Alito's upside-down flag sparks another SCOTUS ethics scandal:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/justice-alito-s-upside-down-flag-sparks-another-scotus-ethics-scandal-211197509527

* "Rep. Raskin: “the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards.”:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/rep-raskin-the-highest-court-in-the-land-has-the-lowest-ethical-standards-211224645780

* "Elizabeth Warren on the Biden admin's big win for airline passengers:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/elizabeth-warren-on-the-biden-admin-s-big-win-for-airline-passengers-211026501692

* "White House to Republicans: You’re not getting audio of Biden’s interview with Hur:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/16/biden-moves-to-block-house-from-getting-his-classified-docs-interview-tapes-00158323

* "House Democrats launch probe of Trump’s dinner with oil executives:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/14/trump-oil-executives-investigation-democrats/

* "Marjorie Taylor Greene Has Been Obsessed With AOC for Years:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/aoc-marjorie-taylor-greene-feud-history-1235023214/

* "School leaders push back on House GOP claims of inaction over antisemitism:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/05/08/antisemitism-house-hearing-k-12-schools/

* "Republicans follow through on their odd home appliance fixation:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-follow-odd-home-appliance-fixation-rcna151249

* Stop the government censoring queer and other minority voices off the Internet in the US : https://www.stopkosa.com/

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/
To get your Critters' numbers to call direct: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* "Meet RAGA—One of the Scariest GOP Groups You’ve Never Heard Of:" https://www.thenation.com/article/society/republican-attorney-general-raga/

* "In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/08/arizona-election-workers-trained-with-deepfakes-prepare-2024/

* "'He is dangerous': Rep. Balint on the Trumpian threat Speaker Johnson poses to democracy:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/-he-is-dangerous-rep-balint-on-the-trumpian-threat-speaker-johnson-poses-to-democracy-211225157642

* "MAGA Candidate Draws Outrage After Bizarre “Weak and Gay” Video:" https://newrepublic.com/post/181592/gop-candidate-weak-gay-video

* "‘Outside money in Oregon swing district prompts claims of Republican meddling:" https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2024/05/17/outside-money-in-oregon-swing-district-prompts-claims-of-republican-meddling/

* "OUTSIDE GROUPS SPENT $285,000 BACKING JAMAAL BOWMAN. AIPAC ALONE JUST DROPPED NEARLY $2 MILLION TO ATTACK HIM.:" https://theintercept.com/2024/05/16/aipac-jamaal-bowman-attack-ads-george-latimer/

* "Rep. Jamaal Bowman on being AIPAC’s top target:" https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/rep-jamaal-bowman-on-being-aipac-s-top-target-211195973612

* Primaries are Ongoing:
Important! Remember to vote in all primaries, not just presidential!!!

NOTE: There is a call for people to vote "uncommitted" in the Democratic primary as a protest against Biden's Israel policy. The time to pressure Biden with your vote is now, not in November. The pressure from all the different types of protests do seem to be working, if far slower than we'd like.

NOTE 2: There is a similar protest against Trump where people vote for a candidate who isn't running. Check your state to see who people are promoting.

NOTE 3: Important non-Presidential Primaries are also ongoing! Vote the whole ballot!

Georgia, Kentucky, Oregon, Idaho: 5/21/24 (House Primaries as well! Important!!!)

Idaho (Democrat): 5/23/24

Texas (Run Off Election): 5/28/24

Iowa (House Primary), District of Columbia (Democrats), Montana (General Primary, Important!), New Jersey (General Primary, Important), New Mexico (General Primary, Important!), South Dakota: 6/4/24


Know your state's schedule and where to vote. Make sure you and your friends are registered. If you are voting in person, plan how to get there.

If you live in an open primary state consider voting strategically. Otherwise, vote your heart in the primary. Remember how all those votes for Sanders and Warren pushed Biden and the party platform further left?

Remember to vote in all the races, not just the top of the ticket even if it's in a separate primary (as it is in my state). Who runs congress, your state, and your local government really matters. In some states this is a separate primary. Check the rules for your state.

Never, ever sleep on a chance to vote.

It is always better to vote for someone who will listen to us than to let someone who is actively trying to kill us.

* "Biden and Trump agree to debates. And then debate about more debates.:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/15/biden-proposes-2-debates-with-trump-ditching-bipartisan-commission-00158082

* "Why Trump's 2020 debates should make him think twice about meeting Biden again in 2024:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/why-trump-s-2020-debates-should-make-him-think-twice-about-meeting-biden-again-in-2024-211038789777

* "How Can This Country Possibly Be Electing Trump Again?:" https://newrepublic.com/article/181287/can-america-possibly-elect-trump-again

* "Every Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-second-term-plans-wildest-proposals-1234947327/

* "Trump Says He’d Deport ‘Anti-American’ Protesters in Bizarre Rally Speech:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/donald-trump-deport-protesters-hannibal-lecter-new-jersey-rally-1235019174/

* "Trump's election denialism is a 'dagger at the heart of American democracy':" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/trump-s-election-denialism-is-a-dagger-at-the-heart-of-american-democracy-210771525632

* "Trump pledges to 'roll back' Biden gun rules, fire ATF chief at NRA rally:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-fire-up-supporters-nras-annual-us-gathering-2024-05-18/

* "Why Donald Trump ended up praising Hollywood’s most famous cannibal:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/13/trump-hannibal-lecter-immigration/

* "Biden and Trump split screen: "Unhinged" and "Hannibal Lecter":" https://www.axios.com/2024/05/12/biden-trump-rallies-fundraiser-hannibal-lecter

* "NC Senate votes to ban people from wearing masks in public for health reasons:" https://www.wral.com/amp/21433199/

* "South Carolina has passed a gender-affirming care ban. Here's what families can do:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/south-carolina-gender-affirming-care-resources

* "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill that strikes climate change from state law:" https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1251769080/florida-desantis-climate-change-law

* "A Virginia county board votes to restore Confederates' names to schools:" https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250446827/virginia-confederate-school-names-restored

* "Louisiana bill would place abortion pills on same list as opiates:" https://www.axios.com/2024/05/13/abortion-pills-controlled-substance-louisiana-amendment

* Republicans continue to champion CSA as part of their core anti-bodily autonomy agenda. "Why Are Some Republican Lawmakers Hellbent on Preserving Child Marriage?:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/republican-lawmakers-child-marriage-abortion-1235018777/

* "Rudy Giuliani still hasn’t been served his Arizona indictment:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/14/rudy-giuliani-arizona-charges/

* "DOJ requests judge order Steve Bannon to begin prison sentence:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-requests-judge-order-steve-bannon-begin-prison/story?id=110209704

* "US Senator Robert Menendez goes on trial for corruption, no jurors chosen:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senator-bob-menendez-trial-jury/story?id=110269043

* "Witness at Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial says meat-export monopoly made costs soar:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/witness-sen-bob-menendezs-bribery-trial-meat-export-110349002

---

* I can't cover Trump legal stuff in the detail I normally would. Physio ramped up and my arm isn't up to much right now. I am just to tired and in too much pain for blow by blows. Apologies.

* "IRS Audit of Trump Could Cost Former President More Than $100 Million:" https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-audit-chicago-hotel-taxes

* "Trump Campaign Hid Settlements With Women, New Complaint Says:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-campaign-hid-settlements-with-women-new-complaint-says

* "'Utterly humiliating': Trump sycophants in matching suits audition for Trump outside trial:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-utterly-humiliating-trump-sycophants-in-matching-suits-audition-for-trump-outside-trial-210954309549

* "Trump sycophants parroting attacks on justice system risk further provoking MAGA extremists:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/trump-sycophants-parroting-attacks-on-justice-system-risk-further-provoking-maga-extremists-211040325835

* "Maddow slams 'corrosive' rhetoric as spectacle of Trump's Republican cheering squad grows:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/maddow-slams-corrosive-rhetoric-as-spectacle-of-trump-s-republican-cheering-squad-grows-211113541653

* "GOP rep invokes Proud Boys at Trump trial: 'Standing back and standing by':" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/gop-rep-invokes-proud-boys-at-trump-trial-standing-back-and-standing-by-211101765671

* "‘Bizarre’: Lauren Boebert says Trump ‘looks pretty while he sleeps’ in court:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-bizarre-lauren-boebert-says-trump-looks-pretty-while-he-sleeps-in-court-211169349830

* "Michael Cohen says Trump was concerned about election when he sought to bury Stormy Daniels' story:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/05/13/trump-hush-money-criminal-trial/a-critical-line-of-testimony-00157625

* "Stunning lack of effort: Trump defense tepid in attack on Cohen's damning testimony:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/stunning-lack-of-effort-trump-defense-tepid-in-attack-on-cohen-s-damning-testimony-210952261967

---

* "Pennsylvania state trooper who violently arrested Black transgender official on video is fired:" https://www.advocate.com/news/pa-state-trooper-fired-arresting-trans-official

* "‘Horrible’ and ‘beyond F'd up’: Texas Democratic lawmakers outraged by Abbott pardon of Daniel Perry:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/05/17/congress/texas-democrats-house-react-daniel-perry-pardon-abbott-protest-garrett-foster-00158651

* "Starting over: Women emerging from prison face formidable challenges to resuming their lives:" https://apnews.com/article/women-prisoners-reentry-challenges-program-shortage-d56afe6283c25e981d37d6e925d90ffd

* "Vivek Ramaswamy Praises Ann Coulter for Saying He’s Too ‘Indian’ to Vote For:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/ann-coulter-tells-ramaswamy-she-wouldnt-vote-for-him-because-youre-an-indian

* "Two Black cadets and the struggle for diversity at an elite US military institution:" https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-race-academy/

* "Segregation Academies Still Operate Across the South. One Town Grapples With Its Divided Schools.:" https://www.propublica.org/article/camden-alabama-segregated-schools-brown-v-board

* "This Map Lets You See How School Segregation Has Changed in Your Hometown:" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/school-segregation-interactive-map-180984360/

* "A GOP school board member tried to ban a student's art for being 'offensive' to Christians:" https://www.advocate.com/news/virginia-augusta-school-board-gay-art
szx

* CW: CSA. "Attorney General Ferguson announces investigation into Catholic Church’s handling of child sex abuse allegations:" https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/attorney-general-ferguson-announces-investigation-catholic-church-s-handling

* "Even more salacious details emerge about the Zieglers' sex lives as they seek evidence be suppressed:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/zieglers-sex-lives-police-evidence

* "Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker goes on transphobic, sexist rant during graduation speech:" https://www.advocate.com/sports/harrison-butker-misogynistic-transphobia

* "Gay couple sues NYC over 'discriminatory' denial of IVF benefits:" https://www.advocate.com/gay-couple-ivf-benefits-lawsuit

* "Third lesbian killed after boardinghouse arson attack in Argentina:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/third-lesbian-dies-fire-argentina

* Hospital wait times can kill. Denial of care can kill. "Trans teen ‘attempts self-mastectomy’ while waiting for surgery in ‘act of desperation’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/05/17/trans-teen-mastectomy-new-zealand/

* "Unsurprisingly, LGBTQ+ staff more likely to leave the NHS after Tory ‘gender ideology’ crackdown:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/05/18/lgbtq-nhs-workers/

* "Do not ban transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards:" https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/661601

* "Las Vegas man shot at his gay neighbors while screaming homophobic slurs, police say:" https://www.advocate.com/las-vegas-hate-crime-bb-gun

* "Bay Area man convicted for attacking, robbing, abandoning Grindr hookup:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/grindr-hookup-robbery-sf

* "female loneliness and the catch-up friendship crisis:"

( Embed: )

* "The CDC Is Squandering the Breakthrough RSV Vaccine:" https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/03/cdc-rsv-vaccine-babies-eligible/677907/

---

* "Largest Year–Over-Year Gain in Keeling Curve Set in March:" https://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/2024/05/08/largest-year-over-year-gain-in-keeling-curve-set-in-march/

* "A mountainous country loses its last glacier:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/15/venezuela-corona-glacier-humboldt/

---

* "I Was Scammed By Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend:"

( Embed: )

* "Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same. But why?:" https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-have-sunk-3-boats-in-europe-and-appear-to-be-teaching-others-to-do-the-same-but-why

* "The Actual History of Pink for Girls and Blue for Boys:"

( Embed: )

* "Trans women discussed trans rights on the BBC over 50 years ago—here’s what it looked like:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/05/06/trans-history-week/

* "California political activist couple Peggy Moore and Hope Wood killed in car crash:" https://www.advocate.com/news/peggy-moore-hope-wood-killed

* "Black trans woman Kita Bee killed in hit-and-run in Kansas City:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/transgender-woman-killed-kita-bee

* 5/13/24: I meant to write a lot last week, but the weather has been very uneven and physio is moving into the two days to recover phase. By the time I was up to writing, I felt I really just needed to push the aggregate out.

Friday freaked me out a little. I was exhausted and in pain and not at my best. Now that I know the asshole agency app makes them fill out a form about me every time they come and that one of them snitched on me last month, leading to medical social worker trying to Hard sell a home visit I don't want or need, I am wary about every interaction with this one, even though it definitely wasn't her. Is the suggestion about organizing the tea station, something no one has been up to all winter and is on our when we have time list, just a suggestion or the beginning of the Asshole Agency/social services deciding they need to steal my autonomy because I'm disabled? Probably not, but it worries me she was here on a bad pain day in case she types something into the app they DO flag.

Fuck. We can't manage without the help as my primary purpose until Autumn is basically just physio and it eats most of my time, energy, and pain resistance.

Sunday, I had a visitor until 3ish in the morning, which is fine. I'm nocturnal.

Except today is bloodwork day, and they didn't say it was fasting, but this batch usually is. I was having some juice and a snack when I looked at the time. Fuck!

So I'll be staying up to do blood draw waaay later than expected. I am exhausted and hungry and I can't take the morning meds dose, including half the days arthritis pill until I get back because arthritis pill needs food.

And I have an online social engagement in the evening as I generally do on Monday and Tuesday.

On the upside, we went grocery shopping Sunday evening before dinner, and I now have pastry rising in the kitchen so I can have a special treat later.

Miles to go before I sleep. Sigh.

* 5/16/24: Wednesday, we went out to the prettiest local lake for a picnic dinner. We sat amoung the trees and looked out at the water. Later, We went down to the bay to watch sunset over water, seagulls circling and diving in front of salmon belly sky.

It is so beautiful here, still.

It is strangely cold, the coldest it's been in May since I moved up here. The plants will perk up and then the strange cold returns. The once reliable range of weather shattered a decade ago and each Spring brings surprises. I suspect we'll lose half the starts in the end. The marigolds are my fault. I accidentally weeded them.

The mint is finally bouncing back at least and I still have hope for the tomatoes. They are full grown and tomatoes respond well to a touch of mortality.

I got a new exercise and an upgrade to my home physio Wednesday. I was so exhausted I went to bed early and didn't even try any that evening, which is fine. I'm allowed to take physio evenings off. Thursday I managed ten of the upgraded exercise and did two other sets of regular. I only managed three of the new exercise before my shoulder hard vetoed. Sigh. I suspect the cold isn't helping.

The current goal is to rebuild enough strength for me to independently lift my arm above my shoulder and hold it for a five count.

* Looks like state election polling season has started. Long time readers will know I get polled a lot, being in possession of a land line, and I generally answer them unless there is a pressing need not to, because I'm a bit of a connoisseur.

I just (Thursday) got extensively polled on the Attorney general race in my state, which is unusual. They occasionally get folded into a governor or state legislature poll, but dedicated attorney general polls are rare. It started with the usual baseline questions and there were the usual demographic questions at the end, but 3/4 of the poll was attorney general stuff. It came off as legit as apposed to a push poll and was very issue oriented. I suspect one of the democratic candidate campaigns was funding it and I suspect they are working out ad strategies.

Usually, I'm more interested in biases and poll design, but this one had so much issues based stuff it left me legitimately weighing who I should vote for this summer. We're early enough in I haven't done the research yet. It's clear I'll need to do more than average. Of the people in the polls, it was the Republican I knew best and instantly dismissed. (On the Republican scale of conservative to nightmare, he's on the more reasonable end but there is no universe were I vote "back the blue.") One of the Democrats I've never heard of and the other I had a vaguely positive opinion, but neither did I know well. Both have some negatives but also really strong positives, hence the need to dig properly to see how much is real, how much is puff, and if there is anything disqualifying. Exciting!

* 5/17/24: So Thursday I was exhausted and in pain so I went to bed early. Alas, very little actual sleep was involved for reasons beyond my control. Livia got lots of pettins out of it at least, as one of her skills is responding to people waking me up my waiting for me to come back from the bathroom and climbing on while the emperor is elsewhere. This was good and important as Tavy's guarding me again, likely due to the obvious physical distress I've been in the last week and a half. When he gets anxious it's everyone's problem. Between Millennial outdoors adventure and the Emperor being the emperor she didn't get any really long bed pets Wednesday.

I had a very early telemedicine thing Friday morning. I had the cleaner scheduled for 10. Goth Millennial wanted to come over and work on some stuff of their own, which is a thing some of them do sometimes. I said sure, as I'd definitely be up all morning. Telemed was fine. Apparently one of my older vaccines is no longer good, so I need go get part one, preferably next week. It was also fast, so I offered to collect Goth Millennial. The Cleaner had a family emergency, which I believe, given things she's said about her circumstances. so I ordered an extra Tuesday because there is a lot needing doing and I barely used any hours the first three months of the year so there is plenty.

My original plan involved going back to bed noonish, but there were a bunch of phone calls and emergency errands and such so i accomplished very little of the things I had on my original agenda for today. Goth Millennial ended up doing some house and garden things as well as the stuff on their agenda, and i couldn't really do any uninterrupted thing until mid afternoon.

By which point my successfully completing my daily physio homework had become a serious liability to everything else because I felt like I was being attacked with knives. In physio's defense Tavy also managed to pin me in a stress position twice, including during lung time this evening, so some of it is Anxious Cat. By dinner time I gave up and took my emergency meds. no noticeable improvement occurred. Indeed as of 9:45PM it is escalating. O.o Which means I'm going to have to employ All the Techniques and home I can chip enough away to sleep.

So I'm trying not to scream and or cry. Still haven't finished the original three to four hours of stuff I was supposed to do today, though I have hopes of Before Midnight local time, and Friday morning aggregate is late again. Tomorrow maybe? Because no way can I push this out tonight.

* Techie Millennial came to Sunday dinner for the first time in ages. I missed them.

I continue to struggle with physio, exhaustion, and my shoulder screaming at me. Sigh.

* "Opioid Settlements: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO):"

( Embed: )

* "Jon Stewart Gives Sen. Robert Menendez a Corruption Lesson | The Daily Show:"

( Embed: )

* "The History of Museums: Crash Course Art History #3:"

( Embed: )

* "Gender Census:" https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/GenderCensus2024

* "Summer of Trump Cold Open - SNL:"

( Embed: )

* "Fast Fashion Ad - SNL:"

( Embed: )

* "Would Jeeves and Wooster survive Castle Dracula?:" https://www.tumblr.com/brigdh/750210068089389056?source=share

* "Hot Vampire Hunters in Your Area!:" https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonus-1-hot-vampire-hunters-in-your-area/id1679833472?i=1000606859900

* "Jane Austen's Persuasion, Part II:" https://www.thechatner.com/p/jane-austens-persuasion-part-ii?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=5&post_id=144622588&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ykw2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

* "Sunday Sweets' Crowning Achievement:" https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/sunday-sweets-crowning-achievement-2024

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* "Gender Census:" https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/GenderCensus2024

* "Do not ban transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards:" https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/661601

* "Black Alliance for Peace’s Atlanta Citywide Alliance:" https://linktr.ee/bapatlanta

* Map of Cop Cities planned or being built: https://isyourlifebetter.net/cop-cities-usa/

* "if you are struggling with choosing which fundraisers to support, please consider donating to the following places providing medical aid, food, and other supplies to palestine at this time:" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/750500230956564480?source=share

* Links for various Palestinian Aid Organizations: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/750151174318112768?source=share

* "World Central Kitchen:" https://wck.org/

* "Palestine Children’s Relief Fund:" https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-recovery

( More Links Underneath: )

* Extremely Behind. Sorry.

---

* "What Israeli Soldiers’ Videos Reveal: Cheering Destruction and Mocking Gazans:" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/world/middleeast/israel-idf-soldiers-war-social-media-video.html

* "Israel Has Created a Medical Apocalypse in Gaza:" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/fourteen-patients-evacuated-besieged-gaza-hospital-ministry-says-2024-02-19/

* "Palestine Children’s Relief Fund:" https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-recovery

* Verified charities to help Palestinians: https://cleolinda.tumblr.com/post/737312194805612544

* Fundraisers for Gaza: https://www.tumblr.com/el-shab-hussein/742344297699999744/hi-if-its-okay-i-saw-you-were-boosting?source=share

******

* "The US vetoes an Arab-backed UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza:" https://apnews.com/article/un-israel-palestinians-gaza-ceasefire-resolution-vote-350c86ef261bf1a00a2515cf22764de5

* "UK parliament descends into chaos over Gaza ceasefire vote:" https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-parliament-descends-into-chaos-over-gaza-ceasefire-vote-2024-02-21/

* "Large Antigovernment Protest Returns to Tel Aviv, as Criticism of Netanyahu Mounts:" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/world/middleeast/tel-aviv-protest-netanyahu-israel.html

******

* "Analysis: A key withdrawal shows Ukraine doesn’t have enough artillery to fight Russia:" https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-avdiivka-war-063ab1bd47a500ad4a815b12f3d1386d

* "Ukrainian workers describe fleeing the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant:" https://www.npr.org/2023/06/04/1180030838/ukraine-s-nuclear-workers

* "The Danger Lurking Just Below Ukraine’s Surface:" https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-mine-problem/

* "Russian Chopper Pilot Who Defected to Ukraine Found Dead in Spain:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-chopper-pilot-who-defected-to-ukraine-found-dead-in-spain

---

* "Most of Russia’s opposition is either dead, in exile abroad or in prison at home. What happens now?:" https://apnews.com/article/navalny-russia-opposition-putin-8554f74e229c451f96956939b05d2a99

* "US to announce ‘major sanctions package’ on Russia following Navalny death:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/russia-sanctions-navalny-putin-00142183

* "More than 400 detained in Russia at events in memory of Navalny, rights group says:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/over-110-people-detained-across-russia-rallies-memory-navalny-rights-group-2024-02-17/

* "Maddow: The world needs Russian dissidents against growing threat of Putin aggression:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-the-world-needs-russian-dissidents-against-growing-threat-of-putin-aggression-204522053892

* "Biden will email 153,000 student loan borrowers: I’m canceling your debt:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/21/biden-student-loan-borrowers-00142343

* "Federal appeals court revokes Obama-era ban on coal leasing:" https://www.npr.org/2024/02/21/1233039539/federal-appeals-court-revokes-obama-era-ban-on-coal-leasing

* "Supreme Court tells Marjorie Taylor Greene’s anti-mask lawsuit to kiss off:" https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/02/supreme-court-tells-marjorie-taylor-greenes-anti-mask-lawsuit-to-kiss-off/

* "The Supreme Court leaves in place the admissions plan at an elite Virginia public high school:" https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-virginia-school-admissions-asian-discrimination-bdac4a3d720c0355f9da1c9539b05c2d

* "Sam Alito Launches Broadside Against Marriage Equality in Homophobic Juror Case:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/sam-alito-marriage-equality-homophobic-juror-scotus.html

* "'Absolutely absurd': White House connects Ukraine losses to House GOP stalling on aid:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/white-house-connects-ukraine-losses-to-house-gop-stalling-on-aid-204594245983

* "FBI informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden’s ties to Ukrainian energy company:" https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-burisma-fbi-informant-lying-6969656f6012780a23a4b8841ce2689b

* "10 Republicans who treated the Biden bribery claim like gospel:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/21/10-republicans-who-treated-biden-bribery-claim-like-gospel/

* "'Grow a little bit of a spine': AOC rejects immigration crisis framing by duplicitous GOP:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-grow-a-little-bit-of-a-spine-aoc-rejects-gop-crisis-framing-duplicitousness-on-immigration-204848197566

* We are almost out of time to stop this. Please contact your critter in the House. "Kids Online Safety Act gains enough supporters to pass the Senate:" https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/15/24073878/kids-online-safety-act-new-senate-support

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/
To get your Critters' numbers to call direct: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* It is possible Wisconsin is about to have their first free and fair election in years. "Wisconsin dumps GOP-manipulated maps to better reflect voters' will:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/wisconsin-dumps-gop-manipulated-maps-to-better-reflect-voters-will-204520005771

* "CPAC Panel Singles Out Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris … for Some Reason:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-cat-fight-panel-michelle-obama-kamala-harris-1234973931/

* "Michigan Republicans plan dueling conventions for presidential nomination as turmoil continues:" https://apnews.com/article/michigan-gop-presidential-convention-nominating-c39147c98073eea712611648b31345b8

* "Goat rodeo: Michigan GOP reeling in chaos as empowering election denier backfires:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/goat-rodeo-michigan-gop-reeling-in-chaos-as-empowering-election-denier-backfires-204683845627

* Presidential Primaries are ongoing:

Republicans: South Carolina votes 2/24/24

Michigan: All vote 2/27/24

Know your state's schedule and where to vote. Make sure you and your friends are registered. If you are voting in person, plan how to get there.

If you live in an open primary state consider voting strategically. Otherwise, vote your heart in the primary. Remember how all those votes for Sanders and Warren pushed Biden and the party platform further left?

Remember to vote in all the races, not just the top of the ticket even if it's in a separate primary (as it is in my state). Who runs congress, your state, and your local government really matters. In some states this is a separate primary. Check the rules for your state.

Never, ever sleep on a chance to vote.

Remember, it is always better to vote for someone who will listen to us than to let someone who is actively trying to kill us.

* "Rep. Rashida Tlaib urges Michigan Democrats to vote against Biden in the primary:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/rep-rashida-tlaib-urges-michigan-democrats-vote-biden-primary-rcna139360

* "Biden calls Putin a 'crazy SOB,' hits Trump for Navalny comparison:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-calls-putin-crazy-sob-hits-trump-navalny/story?id=107433543

* "Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/donald-trump-allies-christian-nationalism-00142086

* "Trump won’t rule out 16-week abortion ban, but won’t commit either:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/16/trump-16-week-abortion-ban-00142007

* "Christian nationalists await Trump's return with plans to undo sexual revolution: report:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/birth-control-gay-marriage-likely-targets-as-christian-nationalists-plan-for-trump-s-return-report-204597317923

* "Christian extremists poised to overtake Trump agenda:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/christian-extremists-poised-to-overtake-trump-agenda-204769349565

* "Trump wants to fire thousands of government workers. Liberals are preparing to fight back if he wins:" https://apnews.com/article/biden-2024-government-regulations-democrats-6badc3b424b9eff3ba51e0ec35a8d824

* "Trump hawks $399 branded shoes at ‘Sneaker Con,’ a day after a $355 million ruling against him:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-sneakers-sneaker-con-philadelphia-4de093eda6f8d1c68baf8fe8095f777b

* "Anti-Trans Policies Draw Scrutiny After 16-Year-Old’s Death in Oklahoma:" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/us/oklahoma-transgender-law-teen-dead.html

* "Oklahoma Republicans Passed a Bathroom Bill. Now a Trans Kid Is Dead.:" https://newrepublic.com/post/179161/oklahoma-nonbinary-teen-nex-benedict-dead

* "Nex Benedict: Human Rights Campaign demands federal investigation into non-binary teen’s death:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/23/nex-benedict-hrc-investigation-demand/

* "New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Regrets Implying Israel’s Right To Destroy Gaza:" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/ny-gov-hochul-regrets-implying-israel-right-to-destroy-gaza

---

* "Judge orders Trump to pay $355 million for lying about his wealth in staggering civil fraud ruling:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-civil-fraud-verdict-engoron-244024861f0df886543c157c9fc5b3e4

* "Trump Guilty of Civil Fraud in New York:"

( Embed: )

* "Concerns grow that legal losses could make Trump desperate, even more open to corruption:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/concerns-grow-that-legal-losses-could-make-trump-desperate-even-more-open-to-corruption-204523589929

* "Judge denies Trump's request to delay enforcement of $355M fraud case penalties:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-asks-judge-delay-penalties-civil-fraud-case/story?id=107433418

* "Trump's new legal debts could have catastrophic 'domino effect' on existing debts:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/trump-faces-catastrophe-as-new-legal-debts-could-have-domino-effect-on-existing-debts-204765765975

* "'Trump would sell this country for a dollar': AOC highlights stakes of Trump's desperation:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-trump-would-sell-this-country-for-a-dollar-aoc-highlights-stakes-of-trump-s-desperation-204844101882

---

* "More than 60 anti-LGBTQ attacks or threats against religious venues in 18-month period:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/22/religious-institutions-anti-lgbtq-attacks-threats-churches-glaad-adl/

* "Alex Jones Estate Liquidation Gets Sandy Hook Families’ Vote:" https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/sandy-hook-families-vote-to-liquidate-alex-jones-bankrupt-estate

* "Michigan State Police were sent into cash-strapped towns to help. Beatings, complaints and lawsuits followed.:" https://www.mlive.com/news/2024/02/michigan-state-police-were-sent-into-cash-strapped-towns-to-help-beatings-complaints-and-lawsuits-followed.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fpolice

* "Michigan State Police trooper pleads to beating handcuffed Saginaw man, agrees to stop being cop:" https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2024/01/michigan-state-police-trooper-pleads-to-beating-handcuffed-saginaw-man-agrees-to-stop-being-cop.html

* "Transgender teen killed after first date was stabbed and cut 37 times, report says:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/17/jacob-williamson/

* "Connecticut pastor found with crystal meth during traffic stop, police say:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/connecticut-pastor-herbert-miller-crystal-meth-traffic-stop-police/

* CW: Domestic Violence "Imprisoned mom wins early release but same relief blocked for some other domestic violence survivors:" https://apnews.com/article/women-resentencing-law-illinois-crystal-martinez-941e5aefbdcbc844863957f0dd33529d

* "Neo-Nazis March Through Downtown Nashville in the Middle of Black History Month:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/neo-nazis-march-through-downtown-nashville-in-the-middle-of-black-history-month?ref=home

* "Virginia sued over Glenn Youngkin’s anti-transgender student policies:" https://www.advocate.com/news/aclu-sues-virginia-model-policies

* "Florida school asks parents for permission to have book by an African American author read to students:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-school-asks-parents-permission-african-american-author-read-st-rcna138685

* CW: Rape "Maryland man charged for allegedly raping and robbing trans women he targeted on dating app:" https://www.advocate.com/maryland-man-charged-rape-trans

* CW: Domestic Violence."Divorce rates reach 50-year low amid cost of living crisis, sparking concern for domestic violence victims:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/24/divorce-rate-england-2022/

* "Masturbation abstinence is popular online. Doctors and therapists are worried:" https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/1198916105/mens-health-masturbation-abstinence

* "Protestors rally for sex workers’ Bill of Rights which would end police raids on gay bars:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/23/strippers-bill-of-rights/

* "Tory peer says trans youth should be discouraged from transitioning ‘until their late twenties’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/23/trans-transition-house-of-lords-debate/

* Republicans continue to win their war on bodily Autonomy. "Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are 'children' under state law:" https://www.npr.org/2024/02/20/1232815486/alabama-supreme-court-frozen-embryos

* "Major Alabama hospital stops IVF treatment after court rules embryos are children:" https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/21/embryos-children-uab-alabama-00142508

* "IVF in red states under threat as Alabama Supreme Court says embryos are children:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/ivf-in-red-states-under-threat-as-alabama-supreme-court-says-embryos-are-children-204679237699

* "Biden slams ‘outrageous’ Alabama court ruling that frozen embryos are ‘children’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/02/23/joe-biden-alabama-supreme-court-ruling-frozen-embryos-children-ivf/

* "Republicans left sputtering as anti-abortion zeal runs amok, puts IVF at risk:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/republicans-left-sputtering-as-anti-abortion-zeal-runs-amok-puts-ivf-at-risk-204765765929

* "'This was intentional': AOC calls out Republicans trying to hide from reproductive rights backlash:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-this-was-intentional-aoc-calls-out-republicans-trying-to-hide-from-reproductive-rights-backlash-204846661740

* "The Enshittification of Online Leftist Discourse:"

( Embed: )

* She is a lot kinder to south Park than I would be. "When You're Starting To Run Out of Jokes...:"

( Embed: )

---

---

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* People have been asking for ways to help trans people in West Virginia, given the scary shit going on there. So far this organization is suggested. I'm keeping an eye out for more ways to help. If you have suggestions, please let me know. "Fairness West Virginia:" https://fairnesswv.org/donate/

* To track more general LGBTQIA+ Legislation: https://www.lgbtmap.org/

* An organization for the parents of trans youths: https://transparentusa.org/

* "2024 Trans Girl Scouts To Order Cookies From!:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/2024-trans-girl-scouts-to-order-cookies

* "World Central Kitchen:" https://wck.org/

* "Palestine Children’s Relief Fund:" https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-recovery

* Verified charities to help Palestinians: https://cleolinda.tumblr.com/post/737312194805612544

* Fundraisers for Gaza: https://www.tumblr.com/el-shab-hussein/742344297699999744/hi-if-its-okay-i-saw-you-were-boosting?source=share

* "Library of Congress Launches New Website for Americans to Share COVID-19 Stories:" https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/library-of-congress-launches-new-website-for-americans-to-share-covid-19-stories/s/d5739534-fec6-4e13-9f16-68d6117ee94b

* "We’re looking for English-speaking neopronoun users (aged 18+) to participate in a paid linguistics study.:" https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/741780492503990272/kirby-conrod-is-a-cool-linguist-whos-done-neat

( More Links Underneath: )

* I posted about a third of what I intended too. Apologies.

* I get angry every time a government does this. "How slums in Delhi were flattened before the G20 summit:" https://www.reuters.com/graphics/G20-SUMMIT/SLUM/zdpxrxoaypx/

* "Has India Changed Its Name? A G20 Invite Raises Eyebrows.:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/world/asia/india-bharat-g20-summit.html

* "China’s Xi will skip G20 summit in India during a period of soured bilateral relations:" https://apnews.com/article/china-india-g20-xi-jinping-1540c1850f60edebc067ad430b968c00

* "Let's talk about China, G20, and explanations....:"

( Embed: )

* "Guatemala's top elections court suspends ban on president-elect Arevalo's party:" https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20230903-guatemala-s-top-elections-court-suspends-ban-on-president-elect-arevalo-s-party

* "Guatemala prosecutor seeks to strip electoral authorities of immunity after election:" https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-election-bernardo-arevalo-22fe6c74f3b4a7cd689517f15db6a060

* Terfs are lying when they claim to be feminist. "How do the Taliban, who ‘know what a woman is’, treat women in Afghanistan?:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/05/julia-hartley-brewer-taliban-tweet-trans/

* "Chile will search for 1,000+ victims of forced disappearance by Pinochet dictatorship:" https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/1197019905/chile-search-disappeared-victims-pinochet-dictatorship

* "New scheme to help LGBTQ+ migrants bring ‘cultures and experiences’ to cities as they settle in Europe:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/04/queers-beyond-borders-queer-migrants-europe/

* "Who are the LGBTQ+ allies in Labour’s new front bench?:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/05/labour-keir-starmer-reshuffle-lgbtq-allies/

* "Romania Starts Sending Natural Gas To Moldova Through Pipeline:" https://www.rferl.org/a/romania-gas-supply-moldova-ukraine-war/32162977.html

---

* "Far-Right German Parliamentary Aide Tasked by Russia with Stopping Leopard Tanks to Ukraine:" https://theins.info/en/politics/264014

* "Musk says he refused Kyiv request for Starlink use in attack on Russia:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/musk-says-he-refused-kyiv-request-use-starlink-attack-russia-2023-09-08/

* "Russia amplifies right-wing influence campaign to undermine support for Ukraine by exploiting Hawaii's tragedy:" https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/russia-amplifies-right-wing-influence

* "Let's talk about Russia, a talking point, and the reality....:"

( Embed: )

* "What Were the Russians Doing in Chornobyl?:" https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/09/russia-ukraine-chernobyl-disaster/675083/

* "Ukrainian intercepts show Russian soldiers’ anger at losses, disarray :" https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-crisis-intercepts/

* "How They Tried to Kill Me:" https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/how-they-tried-to-kill-me/

---

* "Chinese Intel Officers Interfered in U.S. Election:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/china-facebook-instagram-propaganda-campaign-1234813762/

* "Let's talk about Fox, a story, and context....:"

( Embed: )

* "How President Biden came to grips with Trump-era radicalism:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/how-president-biden-came-to-grips-with-trump-era-radicalism-192331334000

* "Biden blocks oil drilling on 10M acres in Alaska, including leases Trump sold :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/06/biden-to-cancel-trumps-oil-drilling-leases-in-alaskan-nature-refuge-00114243

* "Kamala Harris tour to inspire ‘critical generation’ of young people in fight for LGBTQ+ rights:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/08/kamala-harris-fight-for-our-freedoms-college-tour-lgbtq-rights/

* "Let's talk about Congress, confusion, and continuing resolutions....:"

( Embed: )

* "Let's talk about soft landings, recession, and Biden....:"

( Embed: )

* "This Is Public Housing. Just Don’t Call It That.:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/affordable-housing-montgomery-county.html

* "How the twin crises of climate change and poor public housing are harming people’s health:" https://www.statnews.com/2023/08/29/climate-change-public-housing-health-consequences/

* That's sure what it looked like, but it's helpful to have it substantiated. "New probe confirms Trump officials blocked Puerto Rico from receiving hurricane aid:" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/new-probe-confirms-trump-officials-blocked-puerto-rico-receiving-hurri-rcna749

* "Let's talk about Beshear, McConnell, Kentucky, and the constitutions....:"

( Embed: )

* Republicans are lying when they say they care about national security or our troops. "Republican Cowardice Is Creating a Mess for the U.S. Military:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/09/tommy-tuberville-military-department-of-defense-blockade.html

* "Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro accused Sen. Tommy Tuberville of helping the nation’s enemies.:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/navy-secretary-tuberville-military-blockade-communists-00114115

* "Let's talk about Tuberville, poetry, and the military....:"

( Embed: )

* "Eight Things You Need to Know About the Navy’s Failed Multibillion-Dollar Littoral Combat Ship Program:" https://www.propublica.org/article/navy-littoral-combat-ship-takeaways

* Republicans continue to wage war on the Rule of Law in their pursuit of autocracy. "Jim Jordan and Wisconsin Republicans Know the Law—They Just Don’t Care:" https://newrepublic.com/post/175458/jim-jordan-wisconsin-republicans-conservatism-destruction

* "‘Offensive’: Georgia prosecutor excoriates Jordan for probe into Trump charges:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/07/fani-willis-jim-jordan-offensive-00114583

* "Georgia DA eviscerates GOP Congressman, suggests he buy book on RICO law:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/georgia-da-eviscerates-gop-congressman-suggests-he-buy-book-on-rico-law-192496709613

* "Senator Admits "Kids Online Safety Act" Will Target Trans Content Online:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/senator-admits-kids-online-safety

* "You Can Help Stop These Bad Internet Bills:" https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/you-can-help-stop-these-bad-internet-bills

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* "Court tosses Alabama congressional map after GOP refuses to draw second Black district:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/court-throws-out-alabama-gop-congressional-map-for-violating-voting-rights-act-00113962

* "Court decides Alabama Republicans can’t be trusted to draw congressional maps:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/court-decides-alabama-republicans-can-t-be-trusted-to-draw-congressional-maps-192327749981

* "DeSantis Florida redistricting map is unconstitutional and must be redrawn, judge says:" https://www.npr.org/2023/09/02/1197452442/desantis-florida-redistricting-map-gerrymandering-unconstitutional

* "Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley criticized a colleague for not recusing from a case involving a donor. Six years ago, she helped kill a measure requiring those recusals.:" https://wausaupilotandreview.com/2023/09/02/wisconsin-supreme-court-justice-rebecca-bradley-criticized-a-colleague-for-not-recusing-from-a-case-involving-a-donor-six-years-ago-she-helped-kill-a-measure-requiring-those-recusals/

* Republicans insist that acknowledging facts is utterly disqualifying for Judges. "State Republicans Try to Remove Top Jurist for Mentioning the Existence of Racial Bias:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/08/north-carolina-gop-anita-earls-ethics-case.html

* "Let's talk about Wisconsin and the GOP not getting the answer they wanted....:"

( Embed: )

* "‘Tennessee Three’ members blast GOP rules restricting speech in state House :" https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4165033-tennessee-three-members-blast-gop-rules-restricting-speech-in-state-house/

* "Oregon Republicans barred from running for re-election after boycotting votes:" https://www.rawstory.com/oregon-gop-re-election/

* "Oregon Republican senators sue to run for reelection, saying walkout rule shouldn’t stop them:" https://apnews.com/article/oregon-republican-lawmaker-walkout-reelection-72dc264fc144539034ad2eb716eb208e

* "Backers blast approved ballot language for Ohio’s fall abortion amendment as misleading:" https://apnews.com/article/ohio-abortion-access-ballot-issue-election-2023-a628e9b323b8544847ace0a0504c5733

* I beg people over and over to vote in all the down ballot races in every election. This is why. "The GOP school boards making California Dems red in the face :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/21/gop-school-boards-california-00112084

* "Historic Win: Gay Candidate Triumphs in Mississippi Primary :" https://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2023/09/historic-win-gay-candidate-triumphs-in-mississippi-primary/

* "Author of MS Care Ban Lost His Primary Because He’s Not Racist Enough:" https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/author-of-ms-care-ban-lost-his-primary-because-hes-not-racist-enough

* "Tennessee political candidate responds to homophobic smear campaign:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/06/tennessee-eric-patton-smear-campaign/

* "Let's talk about Blake vs Lake in Arizona....:"

( Embed: )

* "Gay club owner faces backlash over nearly $10,000 in Republican Party donations:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/08/michael-purdum-gop-donations/

* "Oliver Anthony Slams Republicans Using His Song 'Rich Men North of Richmond':" https://advocatechannel.com/oliver-anthony-slams-republicans

* "Republican presidential Project 2025 plans to define trans people as ‘pornographic’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/08/conservative-think-tank-project-2025/

For fuckssake take this seriously. They are trying to make it illegal for us to exist in public. We are already subject to the death penalty in Florida for existing. They are planning to nationalize this.

They are coming for us first, but they will come for the whole queer community next. Respectability politics and throwing us under the bus won;t save you.

* "A lawsuit seeks to bar Trump from the primary in Colorado, citing Constitution’s insurrection clause:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-insurrection-constitution-2024-election-primary-ballot-19ca3f17881e8818302cb1260e7c2aed

* "‘Pro-baby:’ Republicans trying to rebrand the anti-abortion movement:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-pro-baby-republicans-trying-to-rebrand-the-anti-abortion-movement-192584261851

* "Environmental groups sue over Virginia's withdrawal from greenhouse gas pact:" https://richmond.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/regional-greenhouse-gas-initiative-virginia-youngkin/article_f19e339a-4053-11ee-be13-2f3505af27d5.html

* "DeSantis appoints Moms for Liberty co-founder to board overseeing state employee conduct:" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/06/desantis-appoints-moms-for-liberty-tina-descovich-florida-ethics-commission/70777620007/

Reminder: Mons for Liberty is a Neo-NAZI extremist hate group that openly admires Hitler and espouses his goals.

* "Impeachment trial begins for Texas Republican Ken Paxton:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/impeachment-trial-begins-for-texas-republican-ken-paxton-192327237660

* "Let's talk about why Republicans turned on Paxton....:"

( Embed: )

---

* "Trump White House official Navarro convicted of contempt after defying House Jan. 6 subpoena:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-house-navarro-contempt-congress-jan-6-a4ad58e1f590e5884fd347c86c121a8a

* "New York attorney general asks judge to fine Trump for ‘frivolous’ legal arguments:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/trump-civil-fraud-lawsuit-sanctions-00114054

* "Witness in Trump documents case reached deal with prosecutors, ex-attorney says:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/witness-trump-documents-case-reached-deal-with-prosecutors-ex-attorney-says-2023-09-06/

* "Is Judge Cannon preparing to kneecap Trump's Florida documents case?:" https://www.publicnotice.co/p/judge-aileen-cannon-trump-florida-documents-case

* "Lordy, more tapes! Trump lawyer's notes add details on lead-up to FBI search of Mar-a-Lago:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/lordy-more-tapes-trump-lawyer-s-notes-add-details-on-lead-up-to-fbi-search-of-mar-a-lago-192418885579

* "Prosecutors race against Trump media's campaign to corrupt jury pool:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/prosecutors-race-against-trump-media-s-campaign-to-corrupt-jury-pool-192594501612

* "'His efforts fall short.': Judge stomps on Mark Meadows' bid to take Georgia trial federal:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-his-efforts-fall-short-judge-stomps-on-mark-meadows-bid-to-take-georgia-trial-federal-192592453609

* "Fani Willis lays out criminal case against false electors :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/fani-willis-criminal-case-electors-trump-00114149

* "All defendants in Georgia racketeering case, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty:" https://www.npr.org/2023/09/05/1197697531/georgia-racketeering-case-defendants-arraignment-trump-giuliani-meadows

* "Citing lumbering Young Thug case, Trump co-defendant seeks separate trial:" https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/citing-lumbering-young-thug-case-trump-co-defendant-seeks-separate-trial/LKEU6XM4AZBFBLBZH33VOGX33E/

* "Trump’s co-defendants are already starting to turn against him:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/trump-cases-defendants-flipping-00113910

* "Trump, co-defendants scatter on strategy as legal heat intensifies:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/trump-co-defendants-scatter-on-strategy-as-legal-heat-intensifies-192332357685

* "Let's talk about Trump, Georgia, Willis and the most important takeaway....:"

( Embed: )

* "Threats, slurs and menace: Far-right websites target Fulton County grand jurors:" https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194471162/trump-indictment-fulton-county-grand-jurors-threats

* "Trump Georgia election trial juror names should be secret, DA tells judge:" https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/atlanta-da-wants-trump-georgia-election-trial-juror-names-to-be-secret.html

* "‘The corruption of Lindsey Graham:’ Why the senator risked indictment for Trump:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-the-corruption-of-lindsey-graham-why-the-senator-risked-indictment-for-trump-192586309563

* "Trump’s daily statements threaten to prejudice jury pool in D.C. elections case, prosecutors warn:" https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/05/trumps-daily-statements-threaten-to-prejudice-jury-pool-in-dc-elections-case-prosecutors-warn.html

* "'A new avenue of investigation': Jack Smith's grand jury that indicted Trump reconvenes:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-a-new-avenue-of-investigation-jack-smith-s-grand-jury-that-indicted-trump-reconvenes-192505413868

---

* "Here are the longest Jan. 6 prison sentences handed down so far :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/05/enrique-tarrio-prison-sentencing-proud-boys-00114104

* "Proud Boys’ Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in prison for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy:" https://apnews.com/article/enrique-tarrio-capitol-riot-seditious-conspiracy-sentencing-da60222b3e1e54902db2bbbb219dc3fb

* "‘Wrong’ and ‘excessive:’ DeSantis, Ramaswamy criticize Proud Boys sentences:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-wrong-and-excessive-desantis-ramaswamy-criticize-proud-boys-sentences-192498245678

* "A Christian Crowdfunding Site Has a White-Power Problem:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/christian-crowdfunding-givesendgo-white-power-problem-1234809799/

* "Neo-Nazis Parade Around Florida Chanting "Jews Will Not Replace Us":" https://www.advocate.com/news/neo-nazis-gather-orlando-florida

* Reminder: Both Libs of Tik Tok and Leave Our Kids Alone are Neo-NAZI hate groups know for inciting violence in pursuit of anti-LGBTQIA+ exterminationist goals. "“Lynch them all!” Libs of TikTok incites death threats targeting Los Angeles Unified School District:" https://www.vpsreports.com/post/lynch-them-all-libs-of-tiktok-incites-death-threats-targeting-los-angeles-unified-school-district

* "Sonja Shaw reshares threatening post against AG Rob Bonta: “you’re about to f- around and find out”:" https://www.vpsreports.com/post/sonja-shaw-reshares-threatening-post-against-ag-rob-bonta-you-re-about-to-f-around-and-find-out

* "U.S. judge orders Texas to move Rio Grande barriers to embankment, siding with Biden:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-orders-texas-move-rio-grande-barriers-embankment-siding-with-biden-2023-09-06/

* "Busload of migrants, the 12th sent by Texas, arrives in Los Angeles:" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-04/busload-of-migrants-12th-sent-by-texas-arrives-in-los-angeles

* "Thirteenth bus of migrants arrives at Union Station from Texas:" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-09/bus-of-migrants-arrives-at-union-station-from-texas

* Police continue to murder people for sport. "New video shows Philadelphia Police officer shot Eddie Irizarry within seconds of getting out of patrol car:" https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/eddie-irizarry-philadelphia-police-shooting-mark-dial-family-lawyer-20230822.html

* "Video released in trooper's fatal shooting of Ricky Cobb II in Minneapolis:" https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ricky-cobb-ii-state-trooper-fatal-shooting-video-released-minneapolis/

* "White ex-officers in Mississippi plead guilty to racist assault on 2 Black men during raid:" https://apnews.com/article/rankin-mississippi-deputies-civil-rights-brutality-2c2154e67cc6cd3b9a28cb16686f2a5c

* "A Chicago Cop Is Accused of Lying Under Oath 44 Times. Now Prosecutors Are Dropping Cases That Relied on His Testimony.:" https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-officer-kriv-perjury-prosecutors-dropped-criminal-cases

* "Sadistic California Cops Bragged About ‘Violating Civil Rights’:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/antioch-cops-morteza-amiri-eric-rombough-devon-wenger-1234812466/

* "Dallas cops laughed after disabled military vet was denied restroom, urinated on himself:" https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-safety/2023/08/16/dallas-cops-laughed-after-disabled-military-vet-denied-toilet-access-urinated-on-himself/

* "SPD illegally searched trunk after driver says he was stopped due to race, judge rules:" https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/spd-illegally-searched-trunk-after-driver-says-he-was-stopped-due-to-race-judge-rules/

* All this for exercising their first amendment rights. This is some bullshit. "61 Cop City Protesters in Atlanta Are Being Hit With RICO Charges. Dozens of activists have been indicted for opposing the construction of a massive police facility outside Atlanta.:" https://newrepublic.com/post/175382/cop-city-protesters-atlanta-rico-racketeering-charges

* "Kansas State Police Tell Court It’s Too Much To Ask For Troopers To Respect The Constitution:" https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/31/kansas-state-police-tell-court-its-too-much-to-ask-for-troopers-to-respect-the-constitution/

* "New Proof That Police Use Civil Forfeiture To Take From Those Who Can’t Fight Back:" https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2021/10/25/new-proof-that-police-use-civil-forfeiture-to-take-from-those-who-cant-fight-back/?sh=25be27434e84

* "Racist abuse by Mississippi officers reveals a culture of misconduct, residents say:" https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-racist-abuse-police-culture-1feb54483e62bef53efe1a1a16be29f1

* "Woman forced to do her own detective work when an LAPD officer stole her debit card:" https://boingboing.net/2023/08/31/woman-forced-to-do-her-own-detective-work-when-an-lapd-officer-stole-her-debit-card.html

* "Well-Funded Reactionary Police Unions Are Recalling Progressive DAs Who Hold Cops Accountable:" https://www.downwithtyranny.com/post/well-funded-reactionary-police-unions-are-recalling-progressive-das-who-hold-cops-accountable

* Sheriffs wage war on the rule of law. "IN THE SHERIFF WE TRUST:" https://azcir.org/cspoa/

* "Sheriffs Who Back the “Great Replacement” as the New “Big Lie”:" https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/sheriffs-who-back-the-great-replacement-as-the-new-big-lie/

* "NYPD will use drones to monitor private parties over Labor Day weekend:" https://www.engadget.com/nypd-will-use-drones-to-monitor-private-parties-over-labor-day-weekend-001909102.html?src=rss

* "Many big US cities now answer mental health crisis calls with civilian teams — not police:" https://apnews.com/article/mental-health-crisis-911-police-alternative-civilian-responders-ca97971200c485e36aa456c04d217547

* "A prison guard says she was forced to stay at her post during labor pains. Texas is fighting compensation for her stillbirth.:" https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-argues-fetus-doesn-t-right-life-new-18292079.php

* "Is This the End of Prison Phone Fees?:" https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2023/08/conneticut-prison-phone-fees-securus/

* "Texas drag ban: ‘I never dreamed I’d be in court fighting for the right to wear make-up and a wig’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/09/texas-drag-ban-lawsuit-injunction-brigitte-bandit-extragrams/

* "Iowa Mayor Blocks LGBTQ+ Group From Labor Day Parade, Citing ‘Safety’ Concerns:" https://www.advocate.com/news/iowa-mayor-lgbtq-labor-day

* "At a College Targeted by DeSantis, Gender Studies Is Out, Jocks Are In:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/opinion/columnists/gender-studies-ron-desantis-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=iXRmJv42iabGRCWy2uY4F-FYZ_ntHEV7YRICgRsdHsE_zKNrMgPf5LpB7FfwlGLPb0YMg30o8rP7TFuwQ-WmWl2fXJrjHqDzOj4DD-E14MRQ5vxziXzg88itfuIu-zAm817zINVHywwnzkFdkBFJFfygyvnDZ1i1LtpbwGIu-fBFOpbBkUDZVOsHC0Y4T9EoxJ3hPgtiLZ0N4_6TZdkjQ9wdnUR6agNTlwr9nGwWoK566TPLYobR5EDRHOP5_Y5c2yvNoaw271NGv4YncIiCY3xn3x0ZOmSwWjZ2dMGAZ9Bu5Diw4CyfsfPEntum2EHJP3YhNfOShZNUt2t4D8h_rIxiLG6LaOUK4Bw55l5cZEhLM_Iso6hK&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

* "Houston ISD Takeover, The Musical:" https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-isd-takeover-the-musical/?goal=0_975e2d1fa1-5f5fbe19c0-34916046&mc_cid=5f5fbe19c0

* "Queer History Lecture Prompts Vengeance From Alabama GOP:" https://www.advocate.com/history/queer-history-lecture-alabama-gop

* "Florida school principal on leave after holding a Powerpoint session to tell Black kids they must improve:" https://boingboing.net/2023/08/26/florida-school-principal-on-leave-after-holding-a-powerpoint-session-to-tell-black-kids-they-must-improve.html

* "PragerU’s ‘Propaganda’ Videos Infiltrate Another State’s Classrooms:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/pragerus-propaganda-videos-okd-for-oklahoma-classrooms-by-supt-ryan-walters

* "Conservative propaganda site targeting schools looks to expand state partnerships:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/conservative-propaganda-site-targeting-schools-looks-to-expand-state-partnerships-192332357883

* "How Fracking Billionaires, Ben Shapiro, and PragerU Built a Climate Crisis–Denial Empire:" https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3p33j/fracking-farris-dan-wilks-prageru-climate-crisis-denial-shapiro

* "Follow the money: Fracking billionaires funding anti-renewable energy propaganda cartoons:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/follow-the-money-fracking-billionaires-funding-anti-renewable-energy-propaganda-cartoons-192512069824

* "Pennsylvania school district requires social studies classes to incorporate right-wing propaganda:" https://popular.info/p/pennsylvania-school-district-requires

* "Florida school board votes not to recognise LGBTQ+ History Month:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/07/florida-school-board-lgbtq-history-month/

* "School district uses ChatGPT to help remove library books:" https://www.popsci.com/technology/iowa-chatgpt-book-ban/

* "California passes anti-book ban bill for schools: ‘The true freedom state’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/09/california-book-bans-lgbtq-race-inclusive-schools/

* "Conservative book ban push fuels library exodus from national association that stands up for books:" https://apnews.com/article/library-book-ban-association-withdraw-7f5743a9e464433a745697f9111d7f6b

* ""Detransitioner Wave" Fails To Materialize, Trans Regret Rates Remain Low:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/detransitioner-wave-fails-to-materialize?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

* "Why aren’t we all being offered an autumn Covid booster? We can’t let cost prevent us keeping Britain healthy:" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/08/autumn-covid-booster-britain-uk-vaccine-long-covid-economy

I hate linking to the Guardian because they hate people like me, but the Tories making Eugenics against disabled people their official public health policy isn't well covered anywhere not blatantly transphobic, so I'm doing it.

* "COVID Booster Is Coming, but Here’s Why You May Not Get It:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-booster-is-coming-but-cdc-hasnt-decided-who-is-eligible

* I always ask them to do my left as a matter of course. I now feel lucky. "Which arm gets the Covid-19 booster may make a difference, study shows:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/18/health/covid-vaccine-arm-wellness/index.html

* "How Black autistic women and girls are excluded from conversations on resources and research:" https://19thnews.org/2023/06/black-women-and-girls-autism-data/

* "Is It Real or Imagined? Here’s How Your Brain Tells the Difference:" https://www.wired.com/story/is-it-real-or-imagined-heres-how-your-brain-tells-the-difference/

* This doesn't surprise me even a little, given my Uncle's experiences. "Largest study of brains of athletes younger than 30 finds early signs of CTE even in amateur players :" https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/health/cte-younger-athletes/index.html

---

* "Where dangerous heat is surging:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/extreme-heat-wet-bulb-globe-temperature/

* "This Brutal Summer in 10 Alarming Maps and Graphs:" https://www.wired.com/story/this-brutal-summer-in-10-alarming-maps-and-graphs/

* "Climate-linked ills threaten humanity:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/pakistan-extreme-heat-health-impacts-death/

* "Maui’s Wildfire Recovery Is Haunted by the Specter of Colonialism:" https://newrepublic.com/article/175209/maui-wildfire-recovery-haunted-colonialism

* "‘Everything was gone in minutes’: How queer people on Maui came together after devastating wildfires:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/05/lgbtq-support-impact-maui-wildfires-hawaii/

* "Morocco earthquake kills more than 2,000 and damages historic Marrakech:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/africa/morocco-6-8-magnitude-earthquake-intl-hnk/index.html

* "In a Place Shattered by War and Earthquakes, People Feel Forgotten:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/world/middleeast/syria-earthquake-rebuilding.html

* "The Burning Man disaster is ‘a teachable moment’ about climate change:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/09/05/burning-man-exodus-flooding-climate-change/

---

* "A Cooler Future Means a World With Less Pavement:" https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/asphalt-pavement-climate-cities/

* "The endless battle to banish the world’s most notorious stalker website:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/03/kiwifarms-website-offline/

* "More than 11,000 years in jail for crypto firm founder :" https://www.euronews.com/2023/09/08/more-than-11000-years-in-jail-for-crypto-firm-founder

* "Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule:" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/elon-musks-shadow-rule

* "With Elon Musk, Free Speech Comes at a Price:" https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-free-speech-price-man-sentenced-death-1824155

* "Elon Musk Blames Anti-Defamation League for Destroying Website He Ruined Himself:" https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-blames-anti-defamation-league-twitter-advertisting-revenue-antisemitism-1234818503/

* "Elon Musk Agrees to Libs of TikTok Request for X ‘Data Dump’ on Anti-Defamation League:" https://www.advocate.com/news/elon-musk-defends-chaya-raichik

* "X/Twitter executives had a very bad day defending Musk's platform:" https://mashable.com/article/x-twitter-linda-yaccarino-interview-illegal-content

* "“How is still being on Twitter, for whatever reason, actually ‘handing money’ to [Musk and his fascist project]?:" https://solarbird.net/blog/2023/04/23/how-is-still-being-on-twitter-for-whatever-reason-actually-handing-money-to-musk-and-his-fascist-project/

* "Elon Musk’s X sues California over law meant to tackle hate speech on social media:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/09/elon-musk-x-sue-california-law-hate-speech-social-media/

* "Enough! Advertisers and Governments Must Dump Elon Musk.:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/enough-advertisers-and-governments-must-dump-elon-musk?ref=home?ref=home

* "The truth about Elon Musk and anti-Semitism :" https://popular.info/p/the-truth-about-elon-musk-and-anti

* Free speech doesn't mean free of consequences."Hey Elon: The ADL Convincing Advertisers To Run Away From Your Site Is Part Of The Free Speech You Pretend To Support :" https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/05/hey-elon-the-adl-convincing-advertisers-to-run-away-from-your-site-is-part-of-the-free-speech-you-pretend-to-support/

* "Civil rights groups attacked by Elon Musk are mounting a counteroffensive:" https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/civil-rights-groups-attacked-elon-musk-are-mounting-counteroffensive-rcna103579

* "Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome:" https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/

* I remember a similar campaign with vaccinated sandwiches decades ago. This is so much cleverer. "The Massive Campaign to Air-Drop Tiny Rabies Vaccines to Raccoons:" https://www.wired.com/story/the-massive-campaign-to-air-drop-tiny-rabies-vaccines-to-raccoons/

* "Viking Age Tools and the Mighty Mästermyr Tool Chest:"

( Embed: )

* "Who was the 1920s Moulin Rouge Drag Queen that inspired Man Ray and Cocteau?:" https://www.messynessychic.com/2023/02/15/who-was-the-1920s-moulin-rouge-drag-queen-that-inspired-man-ray-and-cocteau/

* "SOME LIKE IT HOT: Secrets, Scandals, and Marilyn's Mystique:"

( Embed: )

* "Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died there:" https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-native-american-land-back-b09c0dc8dd6289a1545684e04599f94f

* "Smash Mouth's Former Lead Singer Steve Harwell Dead at 56:" https://www.advocate.com/obituaries/smash-mouth-steve-harwell-dead

* "See the wild, customized creations of Indonesia’s ‘rebel riders’:" https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/see-wild-creations-indonesia-vespa-rebel-riders

* "‘Back to school’ means anytime from late July to after Labor Day, depending on where in the U.S. you live:" https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/25/back-to-school-dates-u-s/

* "Sailing boat rescued by the Götheborg:" https://www.gotheborg.se/news/rescue-of-sailing-boat/

* Wednesday was errands. Thursday, they upped my dose. After I got my flu vaccine. Between the two I'm a bit low grade ick, but it is so worth it. This year's flu is extra nasty. I'll take a few days of low grade meh over a month of illness and the risk of the hospital any day.

You might want to get yours soon.

Pharmacy is strict on the RSV age limit and isn't doing medical wavers. Given my immune system, I have hopes of the doctor giving me one despite being too young.

I hope to get the new COVID formulation next week.

Friday was the dentist. No cleaner, but it was a nobody's fault thing. She called Thursday morning while I was getting my jabs and I didn't check until it was to late to call back. she tried the call box out front, which doesn't work 98% of the time. When it does work, it may or may not ring and if it does all we get is static. She was gone when I checked. I was too tired and discouraged to cope with reschedule.

Did I mention today's random draw dentist looked and low key sounded like Colin Robinson? Because he did.

* "Smash Mouth - Walkin' On The Sun:"

( Embed: )

* "Midnight Pals: The Fourth Estate:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/727555012038885377/midnight-pals-the-fourth-estate?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: Publisher Assassins:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/727637341777297408/midnight-pals-publisher-assassins?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: FUCK THIS HOUSE:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/727733292100681728/brian-asman-submitted-for-the-approval-of-the?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: Tapeworms:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/728004145119903744/midnight-pals-tapeworms?source=share

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* "US Patent Bureau call for comment on AI:" https://amaebi.dreamwidth.org/2286373.html

* Want to help the people of Maui?

Maui Food Bank: https://mauifoodbank.org/

Maui Humane Society: https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/

Center for Native Hawaiian Advancement: https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/cnhamembers/kakoomaui

Hawai'i Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/local/hawaii/ways-to-donate.html

* Support the WGA. "Entertainment Community Fund:" https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

* Cool Blackwork Embroidery Patterns for Beginners: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thehaberdasheress/?etsrc=sdt

* If you would like to help support me and the Cats: paypal.me/Gwydion

* I admit to having a wicked good time tormenting myself and other history geeks with my polls: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydpolls

( Links Underneath: )

* The aggregate went up late this week because of chaos detailed below. My body is still completely thrashed from the Friday uncleaning. I am doing my best, but only a tiny portion of news made it up.

* "Waterloo university stabbing was ‘targeted anti-LGBTQ+ attack’, police say as suspect charged:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/waterloo-university-stabbing-was-targeted-anti-lgbtq-attack-police-say-as-suspected-charged/

* "Bigots blame stabbing attack in a Canadian University’s Gender Issues class on trans people being too trans in public:" https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2023/06/29/bigots-blame-stabbing-attack-in-a-canadian-universitys-gender-issues-class-on-trans-people-being-too-trans-in-public/

* "Russia conducts tactical fighter jet drills over Baltic Sea:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-conducts-tactical-fighter-jet-drills-over-baltic-sea-2023-06-27/

* "Putin tells rebellious Russian fighters to swear allegiance or leave for Belarus:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/26/putin-rebellion-troops-belarus-00103695

* "Some Russians welcomed Wagner mercenaries who appeared in their streets during brief insurrection:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/europe/russia-wagner-rostov-sympathy-ukraine-intl-cmd/index.html

* "Plot Thickens: Russian Generals Supported Wagner Mutiny but Backed Out – US Intelligence:" https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18817

* "Wagner’s Prigozhin Planned to Capture Russian Military Leaders:" https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/wagners-prigozhin-planned-to-capture-russian-military-leaders-805345cf

* "Putin Moves to Punish Prigozhin Allies:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/28/world/europe/putin-prigozhin-russia.html

* "Prigozhin May Be Gone, but Not the Failings He Ranted About:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/world/europe/prigozhin-shoigu-gerasimov-surovikin-russia-military.html

* "The poppycock of Myanmar drug suppression:" https://asiatimes.com/2023/06/the-poppycock-of-myanmar-drug-suppression/

* "SNP politicians accuse Tories of ‘rank hypocrisy’ for supporting devolution ‘where it suits them’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/snp-hannah-bardell-gender-recognition-reform/

* "Politician who allegedly said all white men should have Black slave is suspended:" https://thegrio.com/2023/04/14/british-politician-andrew-edwards-white-men-black-slave/

---

* "Ukraine spy chief accuses Russia of 'mining' cooling pond at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-spy-chief-accuses-russia-mining-cooling-pond-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-2023-06-20/

---

* This is a really helpful thing explaining why Biden's wanting bridges without weight restrictions is correct from a civil engineering perspective: https://www.tumblr.com/whovianuncle/721335205966823424/surely-this-is-a-good-idea-that-doesnt-have-the?source=share

* This win was essential for saving democracy and a huge relief. "Supreme Court denies state legislatures the unchecked power to set election rules:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/27/supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislature-theory-00103793

* "Hayes: Supreme Court has ruled against the right’s ‘slow-motion insurrection’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-supreme-court-has-ruled-against-the-right-s-slow-motion-insurrection-185338437718

* "Ketanji Brown Jackson Dismantles SCOTUS Conservatives in Blistering Dissent:" https://www.thedailybeast.com/ketanji-brown-jackson-dismantles-scotus-conservatives-in-blistering-affirmative-action-dissent

* "US Supreme Court's two Black justices clash over affirmative action ruling:" https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-justices-jackson-thomas-illustrate-heated-us-debate-race-2023-06-29/

* "How Clarence Thomas ‘pulled the ladder up behind him’ on affirmative action:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/how-clarence-thomas-pulled-the-ladder-up-behind-him-on-affirmative-action-185974341842

* "Conservative justices welcome affirmative action—of legacy students:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/joy-conservative-justices-welcome-affirmative-action-of-legacy-students-185984069671

* "Battle for belonging: Steps toward racial progress in U.S. met with pushback: book:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/battle-for-belonging-steps-toward-racial-progress-in-u-s-met-with-pushback-book-185401925504

* "End of affirmative action checks another box on list of long term conservative projects:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/end-of-affirmative-action-checks-another-box-on-list-of-long-term-conservative-projects-186013253633

* "How the repercussions of affirmative action's end will reach far beyond college admissions:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/how-the-repercussions-of-affirmative-action-s-end-will-reach-far-beyond-college-admissions-186014277620

* "Supreme Court: Affirmative Action Is OK — If the Students Are Getting Sent to Die in Wars:" https://theintercept.com/2023/06/29/supreme-court-affirmative-action-military-academy/

* "Biden slams SCOTUS affirmative action decision: 'Discrimination still exists in America':" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-supreme-court-affirmative-action-decision-word/story?id=100491437

* "Why the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action matters:" https://www.npr.org/2023/06/29/1176715957/why-the-supreme-court-decision-on-affirmative-action-matters

* "Harvard 'legacy' policy challenged on heels of affirmative action ruling:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harvard-legacy-policy-challenged-heels-affirmative-action-ruling-2023-07-03/

* "Capitol Hill reacts to Supreme Court rulings:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/capitol-hill-reacts-to-supreme-court-rulings-186388549870

* "Naive emphasis on 'colorblindness' ignores racial reality in U.S.:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/naive-emphasis-on-colorblindness-ignores-racial-reality-in-u-s-186697285583

* "Supreme Court rejects challenge to Jim Crow-era Mississippi voting law:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-challenge-jim-crow-era-mississippi-voting-law-rcna85633

* "Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s student debt relief plan:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/30/supreme-court-strikes-down-bidens-student-debt-relief-plan-00104409

* "The Student Loan Case’s Unwilling Participant:" https://prospect.org/justice/2023-06-19-student-loan-cancellation-supreme-court-mohela/

The Republicans sued to end student debt relief on MOHELA's behalf against their will and against their best interests since the state government didn't have standing for the suit, and Republicans Supreme Court justices found for the state anyway because that's how much they hate poor and middle class students having access to college and want to punish them with crushing life long debt for daring to try to get an education.

All precedent and the legal requirement that the people doing the suing have an injury and standing have been thrown out.

* "Elena Kagan Has Had Enough:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/opinion/elena-kagan-dissent-supreme-court.html

* "What is the Higher Education Act —and could it still lead to student loan forgiveness?:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-the-higher-education-act-and-could-it-still-lead-to-student-loan-forgiveness/

* "US Supreme Court says Colorado designer can refuse LGBTQ+ customers: ‘License to discriminate’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/30/us-supreme-court-lgbtq/

* "The man named in the Supreme Court’s gay rights ruling says he didn’t request a wedding website:" https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-gay-rights-lgbtq-website-385ec911ce0ca2f415966078eddb66da

This doesn't say it invalidates all anti-discrimination laws in this country of any kind, but in effect, it does since there is no limit on who or why you can discriminate against in this ruling.

Bonus points for the woman they found in favour lying in her filings about nearly everything in them, basically. her business is hypothetical. The person she claimed asked for a website didn't and wasn't aware the case was happening or involved him until it was already in front of the Supreme Court, etc.

I don't understand how any of that is legal, but that's just how eager the Republican Partizans on the supreme court are to make all discrimination legal: They ruled in an entirely hypothetical lawsuit about a dispute that didn't exist based on perjured depositions and filings without even informing the other party they were in a lawsuit about a thing they didn't do.

* "Reactions to SCOTUS' major blow to LGBTQ rights:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/reactions-to-scotus-major-blow-to-lgbtq-rights-186388037861

* "Supreme Court rules for Christian mail carrier who refused to work Sundays:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-christian-postal-worker-refused-work-sundays-rcna84868

My assumption is they will use this precedent to allow EMTs, Doctors, hospitals, and pharmacists to deny trans people life saving health care, a thing that is already happening, but not currently legal.

I absolutely think hijabs etc. should be covered under the first amendment and anti-discrimination laws. I do think if Christians get their holidays off so should the rest of us.

it’s different if you say up front you can’t work certain holidays, but for me this is of a piece with the recent SCOTUS decision striking down all anti-discrimination laws.

The web designer one allows people and businesses to discriminate against any one for any reason. They deliberately put no limits on that.

This decision contradicts that, by saying that in the case of Christians, that previous ruling doesn’t apply, since Christians can’t experience any sanctions at all for signing up for a job they then refuse to do.

Sure looks like “rules for thee, but not for me.”

I’d love to be wrong, but I'd rather not bet my life on it next time I have to go to the Christian hospital where they group pray every morning, which is the only one servicing my small city.

* "John Roberts' Supreme Court rolls back civil rights one marginalized group at a time:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/john-roberts-supreme-court-rolls-back-civil-rights-one-marginalized-group-at-a-time-186273349702

* "'Galling': Hayes on the 'imperial mindset' of the Supreme Court conservatives:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-galling-hayes-on-the-imperial-mindset-of-the-supreme-court-conservatives-186215493589

* "Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez call for changes to the Supreme Court:" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/02/pressley-aoc-changes-supreme-court-00104537

* "Writers Strike Messaging War Reshapes Standoff With Studios:" https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-strike-messaging-studios-1235523786/

* "Elizabeth Warren, Susan Collins Introduce Tax Bill to Help Married Same-Sex Couples:" https://www.advocate.com/law/elizabeth-warren-refund-equality-act


* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* "America's Family Secret:" https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-slavery-lawmakers/

* "Once a Trump target, arc of the moral universe bends for Yusef Salaam:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/once-a-trump-target-arc-of-the-moral-universe-bends-for-yusef-salaam-185706565996

* "Candidate turns lessons of public, personal struggle into winning platform:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/candidate-turns-lessons-of-public-personal-struggle-into-winning-platform-186699333718

* "RFK Jr. Claims ‘Vaccine Research’ Likely Responsible for HIV and the Spanish Flu:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/robert-f-kennedy-jr-does-vaccine-make-fork-stick-to-me.html

* "The MAGA right is going all in on RFK Jr. That could backfire.:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/robert-kennedy-republican-super-pac-biden-rcna91176

* "DeSantis’s latest appeal to MAGA tops Trump in performative cruelty:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/27/desantis-immigration-border-plan-trump-maga/

* "Pete Buttigieg slams Ron DeSantis for ‘trying to prove his manhood’ with anti-LGBTQ+ video:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/07/03/pete-buttigieg-ron-desantis-anti-lgbtq-video/

* "Lindsey Graham booed, called ‘traitor’ at Trump rally in his home state:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/lindsey-graham-booed-called-traitor-at-trump-rally-in-his-home-state-186648645849

---

* "Court upholds sanctions for some − not all − lawyers for suit to overturn Mich. election:" https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/06/23/court-upholds-sanctions-for-only-some-kraken-attorneys/69493140007/

* "Rudy Giuliani interviewed in DOJ probe into 2020 election:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/report-rudy-giuliani-interviewed-in-doj-probe-into-2020-election-185342533732

* "Giuliani, at center of Trump election subversion schemes, spoke with federal prosecutors:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/giuliani-at-center-of-trump-election-subversion-schemes-spoke-with-federal-prosecutors-185703493978

* "WSJ: Giuliani testified for 8 hours in DOJ probe, questioned on Sidney Powell:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/wsj-giuliani-testified-for-8-hours-in-doj-probe-questioned-on-sidney-powell-186650693895

* "Stephanie Grisham: Trump showed secret documents to Mar-a-Lago diners :" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/stephanie-grisham-trump-showed-secret-documents-to-mar-a-lago-diners-186645573966

---

* "Senate report blasts intelligence failures ahead of Jan 6; bias, 'chilling effect' noted:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/senate-report-blasts-intelligence-failures-ahead-of-jan-6-bias-chilling-effect-noted-185394757922

* "Man wanted on Jan. 6 charges arrested with weapons near Barack Obama’s Washington home:" https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-insurrection-obama-weapons-857bad453191c67480b020ec0d1f980a

* "Drag Doesn't Kill People — Guns Do:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/drag-queens-guns

* "Baltimore mass shooting leaves 2 dead; half of 28 injured were children:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltimore-police-scene-mass-shooting-incident-media-2023-07-02/

* "In wake of deadly mass shooting in Baltimore, mayor decries ghost guns, trafficking:" https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/in-wake-of-deadly-mass-shooting-in-baltimore-mayor-decries-ghost-guns-trafficking-186686021667

* "The Disturbing New Face of Mass Incarceration:"

( Embed: )

* "Shipping containers used for Arizona's makeshift border wall are now for sale, but buyer beware:" https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2023/06/30/arizonas-shipping-container-border-wall-boxes-are-now-for-sale/70361464007/

* "Thousands more prisoners across the US will get free college paid for by the government:" https://apnews.com/article/prison-pell-grant-college-graduation-ff3f0b80b5bc0e44dde0408c3dedea19

* "Judge awards a Black church $1M over BLM banner burned by Proud Boys during protest:" https://www.npr.org/2023/07/01/1185630152/judge-awards-a-black-church-1m-over-blm-banner-burned-by-proud-boys-during-prote

* "Georgia teacher faces termination after reading book about acceptance to class:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/georgia-teacher-faces-termination-after-reading-book-about-acceptance-to-class-185672261786

---

* "Reproductive rights battle especially poignant in context of Black maternal health:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/reproductive-rights-battle-especially-poignant-in-context-of-black-maternal-health-184461893607

---

* "Hundreds detained at banned Pride marches in Turkey: ‘They are aware of our strength’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/27/turkey-pride-arrests-istanbul-izmir/

---

* "Climate Central analysis shows that human-caused climate change is making the near-record heat forecast in large parts of Texas and Mexico at least 5 times more likely.:" https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-shift-index-alert

* "Forest fire centre declares 2023 already worst year ever for Canadian wildfires:" https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/06/26/quebec-wildfire-smoke-causes-widespread-smog-warnings-grounds-some-water-bombers.html

* "Canadian wildfire emissions hit record high as smoke reaches Europe:" https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/canadian-wildfire-emissions-reach-record-high-2023-2023-06-27/

* "Rainfall likely won’t be enough to extinguish Quebec wildfires causing US smoke, officials say:" https://apnews.com/article/canada-wildfires-smoke-quebec-rain-a0e287ea5117cccadb9e6917304635ea

* "Air quality plummets as Canadian wildfire smoke stretches across the Midwest :" https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184812177/chicago-detroit-pittsburgh-canada-wildfire-smoke

* "DIY Box Fan Air Filte rDirections:" https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk261/files/inline-files/DIY%20Air%20Purifier%20Directions_English.Spanish_0.pdf

* "Brutal heat wave makes Texas among the hottest places on Earth:" https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/brutal-heat-wave-makes-texas-hottest-places-earth-rcna91584

* "Heat and smoke are smothering most of the U.S., putting lives at risk:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/28/extreme-heat-wave-texas-southern-states/

* Pro-Life Republicans act swiftly to cause more deaths because they believe people aren't dying fast enough. "Workers Die in Texas Heat as Greg Abbott's Water Break Ban Comes Under Fire:" https://www.newsweek.com/workers-die-texas-heat-greg-abbotts-water-break-ban-comes-under-fire-1808610

* "Critics Blast New Law After Dallas Postman Dies Amid Extreme Heat :" https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-usps-worker-dies-in-extreme-heat-critics-slam-hb-2127-16896591

* "35-year-old lineman dies after working to restore power in East Texas :" https://www.ketk.com/news/local-news/35-year-old-lineman-dies-after-working-to-restore-power-in-east-texas/

* "Teen and Stepfather Die on Hike in Near-Record Texas Heat:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/us/texas-heat-hiker-deaths.html

* "Inmates are dying in stifling Texas prisons, but the state seldom acknowledges heat as a cause of death:" https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/local/texas/inmates-are-dying-in-stifling-texas-prisons/503-810c66fc-2bf2-4b7c-946f-c1cbac2ad58e

* What would Jesus do? Deny prisoners succor so that they die locked up in oven like conditions they can't escape. "Push to put air conditioning in Texas prisons fails:" https://www.corsicanadailysun.com/news/push-to-put-air-conditioning-in-texas-prisons-fails/article_257e94fe-0b00-11ee-a1ea-8bf9f4e3447f.html

* "Solar power proves its worth as heat wave grips the state:" https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/28/texas-solar-power-grid-heat-wave/

* "Gov. Greg Abbott vows to exclude renewable energy from any revived economic incentive program:" https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/chapter-313-texas-renewables-economic-development/

Solar Energy is saving Texas' butt right now and keeping their crappy proprietary grid afloat, but in March Republicans decided doubling down on the oil and gas industry while planning to make renewable energy harder to develop in order to make everything so much worse.

* "As Texans suffer in the heat, state Republicans play politics:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/as-texans-suffer-in-the-heat-state-republicans-play-politics-185722949628

* "Heat wave hits Southern California with a scorching Fourth of July weekend:" https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-30/heat-wave-southern-california-fourth-of-july-weekend

* "The Titan Submersible Was “an Accident Waiting to Happen”:" https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-titan-submersible-was-an-accident-waiting-to-happen

---

* "It's Called Micro Metro:" https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O-ZiycBMULI

* "National Geographic magazine has laid off the last of its staff writers:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/media/national-geographic-magazine-staff-writers/index.html

* "We Cleaned Up The Ocean Floor At 40 Meters Depth:"

( Embed: )

* "How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now:" https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now

* "Google Says It'll Scrape Everything You Post Online for AI:" https://gizmodo.com/google-says-itll-scrape-everything-you-post-online-for-1850601486

* "A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election:" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html

* He was incredibly talented. I loved him particularly in naked Lunch, Warlock and Impromptu, but he was in so many things. It's terrible he's gone, but at least the family have him back to mourn properly. In my experience, waiting is worse than knowing. "Julian Sands’ remains found in Mt. Baldy area, San Bernardino officials confirm:" https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-27/julian-sands-remains-found-mt-baldy-san-bernardino

* "Bonus 4: Queering the Gothic:" https://www.scribd.com/podcast/655892341/Bonus-4-Queering-the-Gothic-Stephen-interviews-Dr-Jamie-Bernthal-Hooker?irclickid=3kxxPHRpOzhvU%3A11aUXpLwX1UkF2jZSFRRYS3E0&irpid=2003851&utm_source=impact&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=affiliate_pdm_acquisition_Bing%20Rebates%20by%20Microsoft&sharedid=bing&irgwc=1

* "Good Omens Parody by The Hillywood Show®:"

( Embed: )

* Tuesday I went to the Doctor and had a blood draw. She's mostly caught up. Nothing can likely be done about the allergy treatments unless I want to day trip to Everett every two weeks starting in September, but i am so tired and the pain meds make me even more so. there is concern about no meds causing heart palpatations, but we are going to try a pill twice a day anyway, so i can get coverage in my sleep. Let us all hope I don't start hallucinating.

Given the hallucination risk I stayed at minimum for the Wednesday errands as the last thing I wanted was to start hallucinating while driving.

Some sort of blight has hit one of the garden tubs, but only one species of volunteer plant, which we removed in hopes it isn't in the soil and hasn't spread to the others. The other volunteers and the thing that actually is meant to be growing there look okay, but we are going to try to identify the species of ick, in case we need to sterilize and start over. I will be pissed if that's the case as it's one of the big whiskey barrel planters with the most expensive things in the garden in it. *fingers crossed*

Wednesday was the first day I woke up with bad collapsey legs since I started the new meds and on the scale of bad legs it was about medium. My arms we ironically less collapsey than average for the last week.

Bodies are weird.

* I think I need to tell you about the Cleaner, because OMG, but for that you will need context on my pain/meds situation.

So less pain does not remotely equal no pain. My hip joints were a mess Wednesday, and only a little better Thursday. My shoulder joints, and thus my arms, started to go bad Thursday. The fundamental things wrong with my body aren't fixable, but the new meds are doing a stellar job on what I think of as the secondary pain, IE: everything else not joint or tendon or in their immediate vicinity. It is far more effective than the muscle relaxants I've been using for decades at this since it's hitting the nerves and not just the muscles. It also adds to the tired. So much to the tired. Bonus: on the new dose, I get dizzy if I don't rest enough, and the heart palpitations hit longer and harder when they hit.

Dramatically better means for an extreme chronic pain/chronic illness perspective, not from a remotely healthy person's perspective, if you follow. I was into about a month of unbearable torment when we tried the one pill dosage. I'm still not sure my system can handle the two pills, and I plan to stick to this dose. They are supposed to last eight hours, but I get an extra four hours of partial coverage per pill, and like I said the side effects are scaling up on me.

So right now my balance sucks, I'm exhausted, and my shoulder joints scream at me if I try to do anything remotely strenuous with them, you follow?

So far I've had four different cleaners turn up, two of them twice. Three of those are hard and thorough workers. One of those will not wear her mask. I put up with it because I am wearing mine and turn on all the fans and I'm scared if I don't take her, no one will come. (see five skipped cleaning appointments in a row).

Cleaning is a hard fucking job and they are underpaid, get no benefits, no set hours, and have to pay their own travel costs including for the ferry if they are coming from the reservation and that is a lot of gas. I respect cleaners. I've done it, after all, amoung the many shit jobs I had over the years. I trust them to know what they are doing. This has been the case in three instances. Most of the conversation with those three cleaners has been things like: Where does this go? Where is (whatever) kept? What should i do next? I refuse to micro manage. In my experience, micro managing is dramatically less efficient and just insults the person doing the job. I know I hated it, when I was the person being micro-managed. This works great for Goth Millennial and for the other three cleaners on the other four occasions.

I'm sure you are sensing the big but here.

So the cleaner who came today, turned up the other time she was here high as a kite. I don't mean a little buzzed, which is fairly normal in this town and this state. Weed's been legal here for ages. People with shitty service jobs occasionally come to work a schootch high. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if, say, your barista's a little buzzed. I don't partake myself for a host of reasons, but most of my friends since... I'm going to say 1985, have/do. A little high is no big deal.

Orbiting Pluto without a suit is. She was way out of it girl at a party who's friends have to watch her like a hawk high. She was barely coherent high. She drove here. O.o. She drove home. This terrifies me. after some consultation with my friends including them seeing the mess she made and me acting out vignettes, our best guess is she must have dramatically misjudged an edible. (It had to be vape or edible. I would have smelled smoke. Edible makes the most sense for both the degree of Jesus fuck high and the thinking she was fine when she left home, but waaaay not fine when she got here. Surely she would have cancelled otherwise, right?).

So basically instead of my working away at the aggregate or tumblr queue programming or whatever, it was a lot like baby sitting a toddler who would not shut up, only the toddler would make more sense and the mess would have likely been confined to things in a toddler's reach. I had to go around after she left and actually use the forbidden to me for safety reasons ladder to save a bunch of my cups and glasses from the accident I could see happening the second Squirrel opened a dish cupboard because he had jammed them in their so precariously that the door was the only thing preventing them falling. Goth Millennial came the next day and had to take everything out and restack it. I could live with the fitted sheet being inside out, so we left that for today.

I did not turn her in to the asshole agency because 1. worker solidarity. I never went to work on a substance, but I've worked so, so many shit jobs and the Asshole Agency is terrible. 2. I was pretty sure it was a mistake involving an edible. 3. I was big on giving people another chance when I was teaching. On fuck up shouldn't lat for ever unless that fuck up was malicious or really damaging to other people.

Well, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.

No, she was not noticeably high this time, though I couldn't rule a mild buzz out. She also had a shamefaced and subdued demeanor that clearly told me she knew how badly she'd fucked up last time. She said she'd signed up for me on purpose instead of her other option because I was really nice to her and my apartment was full of interesting things to look at while she cleaned. My apartment is full of interesting things to look at and I suspect she liked me because I was consistently kind to her when she was a mess last time and hadn’t turned her in. She really is sweet and nice and she is clearly trying her best but not remotely the sharpest tool in the shed. Which can be fine. I've known a lot of good workers over the years with significant developmental or accident related challenges and they did fine. She wasn't in that category, but I realized she'd need extra supervision compared to the others. I underestimated how much.

She did walk right up to Tavy and start petting him right away like last time which again confused and alarmed him. Sure, Squirrel and I and a couple of the Millennials can do that because we are his particular friends, but he barely knows her and and she would NOT stop doing that last time no matter how many times I told her he was a biter and apt to maul when he was worked up. I was so proud of him because he did not attack her the first three times, and honestly the forth time, I would have bitten her too in his place.

Tavy was noticeably wary of her. He did want to watch what she was doing, but he remembered her. (By contrast, the other cleaners he'd watch from a distance for a while, and then follow around and in a couple cases, get me to pick him up so he could get a better look. He really took to the GNC person who came once, and kept sniffing their legs). He did let her pet him without biting her, and she was together enough to stop when I told her he was down, and leave him alone for the rest of the two hours when I said he was in a mood to hang out and watch but not interact.

I got her through the linen change okay and last time she was so high she forgot we had a dishwasher after she'd emptied it and it took her most of her shift except the linen change, but the dishes looked and smelled clean, so I set her to that and did not remotely supervise her enough. This I did not discover until evening, but we'll get to that.

Then I set her to sweep and mop, which... Like I've worked a lot of restaurant jobs, often with people in a supported worker with severe intellectual challenges. I've never seen one who'd been doing it for years who couldn't do it correctly. She said she'd been doing this for several years.

Assuming makes an ass out of me, doesn't it?

Oh gods the mess she made! I should have known it was too hard for her when she started prepping for mopping before sweeping. So I told her to sweep first, which she did. I told her to dump the water in the sink, not the tub, which turned out to be very, very lucky. (The tub is the most expensive thing I own. A city program that remodels for elderly and disabled people paid for it. I will never be able to afford to fix or replace it. There are super strict cleaning directions for a reason, because the mechanism is delicate.) I told her to use the liquid all purpose cleaner under the sink. I should have got it out and prepped the bucket myself, but bending hurts and I was exhausted and dizzy and my arm situation was deteriorating. I should have done it anyway, because this is So. Much. Worse.

She used a ton of water. Like way, way to much water in a way that suggested she did not wring the mop and/or she was dumping puddles out of the bucket. It was a terrifying fall risk situation because this was the end of her shift and I really really needed to get ready for bed as soon as she left and forage delivery was late so I had to go drag it in, just as I'd given up and settled into bed. So I'm dizzy with unreliable legs, using both hands and going careful back and forth over this swamp of a floor with a weird gritty, soapy texture. Which is... not what you want in a cleaner for elderly and disabled people. I could fall and end up in the hospital under those conditions. And it;'s not like I could want a couple hours for it to dry. There was no point in washing my feet in the bathroom, so I kept using wipes on them before getting into bed.

Then I woke up to pee and realized just how bad it really was. *head desk* My best guess is she used Ajax, which is stored under a bookshelf in the bathroom, not under the sink. Like a TON of Ajax. The kitchen sink and nearby counter was caked with it and the floor was tacky and gritty and full of muddy footprints. I couldn't leave it like that. I cleaned the sink. I took the other mop with the disability friendly easy to wring it out attachment which had been to complicated for her head and wet mopped it all again, frequently rinsing and wringing it out, until my arms basically gave out and I had to wash up and take a nap.

It's still incredibly dirty. I feel like crying, because I can't feel clean unless my feet are. I've been skating around on damp towels, but though my hip joints are a lot better this evening, I wear out fast and it hurts quite a bit if I do it too much. I hate leaving a terrible mess like this for the millennial, but I simply can't mop any more with these arms. I'd have been so much better off giving her something else to do, but I couldn't think of anything else simple enough for her, and I know from last time she will not leave early no matter how much I tell her she can just clock out at the end of the hour.

At this point I was debating what to do. I had settled on calling Monday and asking them to put her on my no list without giving a reason, because I simply can't go through this again. It's too hard on my body and it's incredibly could seriously injure me dangerous.

Then I went to feed the Empress Livia and discovered something worse.

I'm medically fragile. Amoung so many other things, I have an immune system that is far more interested in own goals than fighting pathogens. I can and will catch anything you expose me too. Anything. I also have a dicey digestive system. Anything I use to prepare food or eat or drink needs to be really fucking clean. We prewash for grease and stuck on food then run them through the washer to make sure the soap and anything else is off. yes, I know this is bad for the environment as it uses extra water, but it’s a serious safety issue for me.

I was very, very clear on directions because I remembered last time. “Wash the dishes and then put the in the dishwasher. The dishes in there are dirty, so don’t put them away. I will run the washer after you leave.” Did she do that? No. Were the dishes cleaned and dried, which would be reasonably acceptable as an alternative? No. They were jammed in with the clean dishes, soaking wet and covered in soap bubbles six or seven hours after she left. We'll have to go through all the pans tomorrow. I pulled the pans and dishes I remembered were in the sink yesterday. I have no way of guessing with the glasses and flatware and I don't know which things Squirrel put in there.

I am exhausted and I hurt and I've been pushed way past the limit of what my body can handle in a day and I can't trust my dishes or the glass I'm drinking out of and I can't get the dirty Ajax grit off my feet. I'm going to go take a bath, but my feet will be dirty again the second I touch the floor.

She's another poor person. I feel like a class traitor just putting her on my no list, but she could theoretically kill an elderly person with her mopping, and I can't decide if I should say something, because anything I do will be a terrible option.

This person literally uncleaned my apartment. I just....

Look, I know it’s a free service, but this is so very much worse than when they don’t send anyone.

* Squirrel was horified because he works with elderly people and he knows better than anyone that falls kill. He insisted I call right away about her. Squirrel: Even I know not to use Ajax on floors!

It turns out they take calls on the weekends. I admit i broke down a bit. My arm was screaming at me and we are looking at weeks of cleaning to get all the Ajax up. It turns out they literally don't fire people for any reason so ethically I feel a lot better about calling, but at the same time she could literally kill an elderly person and also they could send someone even more dangerous because there is no check on that. O.o. so she's blocked on the app from seeing my jobs. I ordered an extra cleaner, but I don't really think they'll send one. IDK.

I spent hours last night trying to fix it last night. Goth millenial spent hours on it today. It still is incredibly dirty. I'm scared the cats are eating the Ajax dirt that clings to their paws. Tavy is really traumatized and wouldn't even let Goth millenial pet him today and he mostly avoided the other millenials who were here breifly. he keeps needing reassurance cuddles and held blerpfest last night in the living room. I don't blame them.

At lets cancelling five times in a row wasn't actively destrucxtive. This was. It was so very very destructive.

It is freaking me out that shge's out there driveing, that she's likely endangering other people and their pets with the uncleaning.

Bonus: She waited long enough to clock out after i told her to clock out that her five minute delay stoole a half hour of cleaning from me.

* Sunday I took some of the Millennials for swimming/picnic at the Lake for the first time this season. I got to watch New Millennial fall in love with the PNW landscape exactly the way I did more than thirty years ago.

You can really tell which of us grew up with cold Northern Ocean. Me: wading steadily deeper and deeper once I'm far enough in to keep my balance by my self on the rocks and the bottom gets a little smoother, then slowly swimming out a little deeper in search of the warmer tide. (It's a run off fed lake, and the mixing of the cold inflow with the water that's been in the lowlands long enough, makes these weird little temperature striations you can very much feel even after you cold adapt). Everybody Else: Wading crotch deep and thinking for a while about whether they want to swim after all, then going way slower and stopping a lot to rethink.

I love my Millennials. The other two each had one of the newest Millennial's arms to help them over the rocks because the rocks suck and I'd forgotten to warn them. Me, urging them on: Keep coming! I found the warm current! New Millennial: Looking concerned this might be hazing, followed by the moment of delight and surprise on finding I was not. Look, it's only like ten or fifteen degrees on a good day, but it does make a difference and the activity of swimming or treading water and the adaptation once you go up to your neck and then duck your head, all add up. You just need to get into a sweet spot.

I discovered on the way back that my fucked up arms really, really don;t want to do backstroke. I managed a lopsided curve towards shore until I was far enough in to pull along the rocks with my hands and kick. So Goth Millennial is hanging close on the way to the shallows, because I can't really get out safely by myself and need help getting up onto my feet and staying there until I'm reasonably sure they are working, at which point either Goth Millennial (or Techie Millennial, who couldn't come), would grab my crutch so I could use it and their arm to get out onto the "beach."

My crutch was not where I left it. My crutch was not anywhere nearby where someone might have moved it if it were in the way of say launching a jet ski from the wrong stretch of "beach" instead of the boat and jet ski launch area. I mention jet skis as their were two anchored in the swimming area where they were not meant to be we we arrived, one of which way out past the swim buoys where it was meant to be, and the other parked on the "beach" where it emphatically should not be, surrounded by mostly kids, obscuring view of the corner where the "beach hits the cit off with the higher land and grass. But I hadn't gone near that, and I needed the crutch to get out to look to see if the crutch was there.

I am still angry about that fad a decade or so ago when asshole able bodied art students would steal poor people's wheelchairs for shitty "art projects" and then brag about it on line as if stealing an expensive thing someone couldn't afford to replace and stranding them somewhere like a park or a bathroom or an inaccessible public building was something virtuous and clever instead of an incredibly cruel things to do to someone, as if their crap project was worth more than someone else's independence. My crutch is basically one of my legs. Someone's wheels are their legs.

Every time I go into the water anywhere, I know there is a chance someone will steal my crutch. This is the PNW, and I think someone leaving a mobility aid next to the water makes sense to the ableds, whereas someone leaving a wheelchair on the pavement in a park doesn't for some asshole shitty lack of empathy and imagination neurotypical reason, I guess.

So I'm starting to get really upset and Goth Millennial is really worried and we are having a loud conversation along the lines of Me: shit! I can you see my crutch anywhere? I left it right there. I think someone may have stolen !it! Millennial standing up and going to look across the bad rock stretch craning their head around to see if some asshole maybe put it on the grassy bit above the cut: I can't see it! It's not there!" Middle School age, glaring resentfully at one of the younger kids, stomps around to the other side of the illegal parked jet ski, where we had zero chance of seeing it, retrieves it and hands it to me. Me: you're very kind! Thank you! Goth Millennial hoists me to my feet while I use their arm and the crutch to just barely get my balance. This is a complicated and painful procedure, returning to gravity after freedom, and I need to stand their awhile like two or three feet away from Asshole Jet Ski Extended family. These kids just stare at me the whole time we are doing this. It is very, very obvious that my normally invisible disability is very, very real. Grumpy teen in charge to a younger kid: You better go apologize. No one apologizes. They keep staring at us hobble slowly and carefully up the shallow stairs. After I went to pee and wash lake water off my hands before eating, I went to set my crutch down by my chair and all this water poured out of it. I'd left it on dry land.

Asshole Family who was too privileged to use the boat and jet ski launch who thus had to drive their jet skis through the swim area had stolen my fucking crutch to play with in the water and the missing adults and the grumpy teen in charge had let them, and then they hid it behind their angled jet ski so no one could see it afterwards. They could have lost it in the lake. They could have kept it.

We found out when our friends came out of the water that they’d also stolen and hid our blind friend's flip flops, which they grudgingly had returned when it was clear they were hers.

Rich people are the worst.

So we go get dinner stuff at the grocery store and drop a Millennial off and I'm in my kitchen searching for my reusable straws, of which I own four. I have one I was using for lemonade which I put in the refrigerator last night. I had assumed the other three were in the wash or something up until now, but I searched the dishwasher and they weren't there. All the flatware are in the dishwasher except the chopsticks and some specialty use items, since we didn't know which the Asshole Cleaner hadn't cleaned properly before putting back. we’d emptied the trays. I search there and around there anyway. There are no reusable straws in the kitchen except the one I was drinking out of Friday when Asshole Stoner Cleaner was uncleaning the apartment.

The time she was here high as a kite she kept wiggling them and shouting "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" She was obsessed with them. They were a gift from Goth Millennial. I don't think they were that expensive, but they were cute and had a nice texture and are earth friendly. (Some people can't use reuseable straws for a bunch of reasons and we have emergency plastic straws here. This is not any sort of judgement on people who use single use. Let's ban fishing industry plastics which are most of the ocean plastic pollution before going after disabled people's straws, okay?)

I think the only reason she didn't steal the forth straw was it was right next to me so I could poke it up under the mask for brief sips. I'd left it and the cup in the fridge because I don't like to put them to wash until I see a new clean straw I can use in situations like this or when my arms are bad, and it's easier and safer to hold the cup low, or sometimes just because. They are reusable! It hurts nothing. I wanted a straw because my body wasn't working and I wanted to drink the juice I'd bought for dinner while lying down and waiting for things to stop hurting so much.

There is zero chance the other three are still here.

I had checked my bedroom right after she left for small, easily stealable things missing from the bookshelf where I put curios right after she left because the comment about my interesting things felt like something a person might say anyway, but also a things someone who might pocket once would say and I was already upset and wary of her because of everything. There are things it would be hard to check, like my BPAL Collection, but odds are she wouldn't steal those. She'd have had to climb on the bed and go through the little boxes and she was only unsupervised in there for a few minutes with the sweep and mop. I will need to see if she stole the bottle where I keep a few tramadol in case I wake up unable to get out of bet or occasionally, even roll over without an hour or more of slow, excruciating effort. While they clean, I'm sitting at my desk right next to the bottled meds collection that mostly feed assorted pill organizers, and the shelf above where the things I need to grab quick in an emergency are not surprisingly untouched. If anything had been stolen when I got up to go to the bathroom the parent tramadol bottle would be easiest to raid and the only really attractive thing to steal except throat pearls, and you'd have to know what they were and they are not recreational, just a little expensive and perscription. The altar and display shelf over the sofa seems fine, and she definitely didn't go in grabbing distance anyway.

When I went into the bathroom to bathe the lake water away, I noticed some small things missing. One of them I'd assumed was in the wash, but I have done a bunch of laundry over the weekend since the Ajax tainted clothes get washed separately and I don't want the dye to be leached by cleanser by letting them sit unwashed, and we have to wash the mop head by itself between uses to get all the ajax out. It's not in the wash. It's gone, a small, very useful thing. Nothing expensive is missing that I've noticed yet, but I haven't properly inventoried all the otc things and the prescription ointments and such, but I'm guessing those wouldn't be attractive. I doubt she'd steal books. She didn't strike me as a reader, but when I am in less pain and less exhausted, I'll inventory them better.

Asshole. Fucking asshole.

I know it could have been worse. Every little curio and most of the art except some things in the bathroom that are there because of the risk of steam or water damage have a story. They were given to me by friends or lovers or made by me when my hands still worked right or purchased at particular events or on particular occasions. These are memories and irreplaceable regardless because they are mostly hand made or limited edition from conventions.

We don't have money for replacing straws right now. They haven't paid Goth Millennial for a month and a half, not even for the supposedly paid training sessions. I owe money to the Honest Mechanic for the third time in three months and am about to burn two thirds of my bill money tomorrow on that, because you never ever fuck over a small business, just like you never ever fuck over another poor person. (I don’t steal, but I think ethically, stealing from a big chain to feed your kids is okay, and very much better than letting you kids starve, especially given the wage theft and lobbying against the social safety net and minimum wage those chains do. They steal from the poor, particularly their workers and if they hadn’t paid politicians to do things that prevent people from having enough to eat, then which is the bigger evil? Mom and pops? Family Businesses? Little micro businesses and artists and what have you? Never, ever okay. Small businesses are the life blood of a community online and RL, and letting me defer payment is a major fucking favor, so they are next after housing, whatever happens to my other bills. The other few things I spotted are replaceable if we had money for it.

I am so fucking angry anyway. I already felt my home was desecrated by her uncleaning it and distressing Tavy and the all over fuckery of it, but this small thing, this thing that wouldn't matter if I were a little better off or they weren't a gift, but feel like a big thing when added to all the rest.

It takes a lot to make me hate someone. We are not there yet, but if I do find something important I overlooked gone, I will, much like I still hate the ex-friend from first college who took three important things with sentimental value that were/are irreplaceable when he dropped out. This is how he became an ex-friend. He knew that the plaque was the last thing the artist my first freshman lover bought it from made and that it had a bunch of layered meanings in what was written on it. The things he stole from me and another friend were like that. Very personal and chosen with surgical precision to cause the most distress. (He did other, worse things, then made sure everyone thought, I’d done them and I was a monster. none of this we found out until he’d gone and we none of us could figure out why. Okay, the terrible things he needed someone to frame, but the rest... Sociopathy was the best guess for all of it really. Last I checked he was still working with children and there was fuck all provable we can do about it, but he really, really shouldn’t have been working with children). These things the Uncleaner stole were small, replaceable things, not something where there is no other one even if memories weren’t attached.

All the things missing I've looked for off and on since the time she was here high, under the belief they were misplaced or in the wash. I wouldn't be surprised if that's when she took them and that's part of why she was so embarrassed the second time, but if she were really embarrassed she could have brought them back then and I'd never have known. Like, she could have tossed them into one washer or the other, or tucked them around the sink, and I'd have just thought that was where they were.

I know the Asshole Agency will do fuck all, but I'm going to call them anyway. Goth Millennial said before we knew about the theft that she was the one who was a class traitor, because you don't do shit like this to another poor person. I have no idea when my apartment will actually be clean again. I'm doubting that an extra two hours this week even if someone turns up will do it.

We are still baffled by the thought process.

If she'd put the dishes into the dishwasher like I'd asked, it would have been fine and not tons of extra time and work cleaning everything. I still need to sit on the kitchen floor in the Ajax to go through all the pots and pans in case the extra cleaner does come. If she'd rinsed and dried them before putting them away, it would have been not ideal, but likely fine. She did neither for no reason we can understand. Putting them away wet and soapy was actually more work than racking them in the dishwasher like I asked.

Not only was the bottle of liquid all purpose cleaner right in front when I opened the cabinet under the sink to hand it to Goth Millennial Saturday when they decided wet mopping wouldn't be enough, there was a literal second full bottle behind it because I hate running out of things so I tend to buy two at once if I have enough cash for it and the trip to get the one I like that is effective but doesn't make bad smells is annoying if I don't want a big mark up. It was right there. couldn't have missed it if she'd opened the compartment. To get at the Ajax I use only for the toilet, she had to go past the dish soap for the sink and tub and the shampoo and conditioner I bought before the engine light went on last month. She could have used the dish soap and it would have been not ideal, but fine except for all the extra water. A wet mop after she left would have solved it. She had to go on her hands and knees and move things to get the Ajax. Following directions was Easier. Asking me to get it if she somehow couldn't recognize it as a bottle of liquid cleaner was easier. Getting about a third to a half of a big cylinder of Ajax out of those small holes was definitely harder than doing it properly.

WTF!?!

I get that stealing small stuff you don't need is actually a symptom of mental illness that requires therapy she likely can't afford, and given how high she was she really had no observable impulse control I could see, hence her repeatedly stopping work to pet a cat I'd warned her not to, and the 'wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, and all the many other things. This is the only explicable part of it. Like I get it. If that's all she'd done I would have been mildly miffed and reported and blocked her because I don't like people stealing my stuff and she might take something from someone else they couldn't eventually replace, but I wouldn't be this kind of furious. A compulsion to steal and/or walking away with something because one is borderline incoherent high and then going oops later are pretty easy to understand motivation wise.

Doing all this extra work to do so much damage to someone you barely know makes zero sense. I was nice to her! I sent her home with a big bag of food each time! We none of us think this was malice. It can't be laziness as this took so much extra work than not doing damage would. so seriously WTF, with the dishes and the Ajax? This question haunts us all.

UPDate: Asshole Agency now says they will file a ticket and investigate. I trust nothing they say, as they've lied to me before, most recently Saturday, when they claimed there was nothing to be done except blocking her from coming here. Today's guy says they weren't supposed to blow be off like that and their is a system. There is no way to tell which of them is lying. I hope the ticket system is not fictional like half of their cancellation calls and I hope there is an investigation system that is not made of bullshit and rubber stamps. That would be nice.

It really does scare me should could accidentally kill someone or their pets and it worries me she's out their in the homes of vulnerable elderly people who may not have a support system to handle the devastation. I'm still having trouble turning my head and lifting a full glass of liquid with my dominant arm above my shoulder. I don't know what long term health effects the Ajax will have on the cats. Livia's on a special diet for her urinary system. I did not fall and I could hide in my bed until all the water dried. The stuff she stole was small and that big a deal. I have Goth Millennial and to a lesser extent the others to help me clean up, but this is exhausting them. None of them have to do that and I appreciate that so much.

If I were older though? I could have broken a hip or had a serious head injury with no one to help.

It still freaks me out she was driving like that the previous time.

I've done a whole lot of shit jobs out of poverty. I have never harmed someone like she harmed me. I never would. I hate that I am harming her now, by reporting, but I had to try to protect whoever next after me. I hate the Asshole Agency. I hate them for the terrible way they treat the cleaners and whole fucking gig economy, and the predatory capitalism that makes this the business model now, and the shiftiness of it all. I wonder how many people before me tried to report her and how many gave up trying to get the asshole agency to care and just blocked her. Did she trash anyone's home before mine?

This was supposed to be extra help, but this is so much harm, so much extra pain, so much extra stress. Medicare pays them money to send untrained, unvetted people into the homes of vulnerable adults run by an agency who's first recourse is to lie to you if you complain about anything, and only calls you half the time to tell you the cleaner cancelled.

I am tired of being upset about all this. It will hard to be not upset about it until my apartment is clean and smells normal again. The chemicals give me a headache, which does not help either.

* On Monday night the extra cleaner I ordered for Tuesday called. They generally do this to check in. i tell them where to park and to call on arrival so I can pop out and wave them in and that they should wear a mask and headphones atre fine if they want to wear them. I began to hope a cleaner really would turn up despite the holiday.

An hour before the scheduled time of arrival, the Asshole Agency called, because they couldn't reach the cleaner. Me: she called last night. Everything seemed fine. Them: do you know how to reach her? Me: No. O.o

She was a couple minutes late, having taken the wrong entrance to my apartment complex, which happens a lot. It was fine. I explained the situation with dishes and floors. she did all the dishes and followed directions. She actually solved the floors with time to spare. O.o. i'll feel better with an extra mopping in the bathroom, but the Ajax spell is gone and she even got the caked crust around the edges in the bathroom. Then she took out the trash and organized the pots and pans, which have been a mess since the silverware drawer broke.

She was respectful of Tavy's space, which was a huge help, since the Uncleaner traimatized him to the point he's having his nightmares again. Livia hid of course, sensible girl.

Goth Millenial wanted to come hang out, so I went and got them. We had a nice dinner and watched Dark Winds. This is a rewatch for me, but they'd only seen the first episode. It's both worth a rewatch and the new season starts soon, so the timing is excellent. Tavy was so worn out from supervising the cleaner from afar, he slept through the visit.

After Lung Time Livia came out of hiding for a love and a snack, just in time for them all to be panicked by fireworks in the parking lot. They both Noped odff to their hides for hours. Livia only came out a couple hours later. She got a love and a snack, and then the fireworks started again, luckily not nearly as loud, so at least Tavy was okay.

The imperial couple decree no more fireworks ever, please.

The Ajax took the shiny protective layer off the flooring, which makes me sad, but I suspected this would be the case when I realized what she'd done to me.

Otherwise, things are normalish here at the cat asylum. It was almost midnight as I wrote this and the wind from Alaska is finally blowing the smell of Canada burning out of our little valley by the bay.

I would like to thank the donor who paid for the latest car repair and to anyone who chipped in in the last slightly over a year and a half when the catastrophic string of things falling apart including two appliances, an apartment electrical system, my teeth, A fire alarm, a tire, and.... Was it five car repairs on my aged and slowly failing vehicle?

I would like to thank you all for the kind words and support you all give me. I notice and it does matter.

* A thing I wrote for Tumblr on the evening of the 4th:

I have a lot of new followers who joined in the last year. You may have noticed that my 4th of July programming is not what one might expect from an American. It is deliberate. I think it is more valuable to see the country for what it is, what’s best and most important about it and fight for what it could be than to bellow self congratulatory platitudes wrapped in a flag.

The fight has gotten so much harder in the last 7 or so years, but it always was hard. Those of us who could never afford the rose colored glasses need to stick together, to have each other’s backs. To those who see the rising tide of fascism and are joining the cause and for those young enough that this is all pretty new, welcome.

We really do need to hang together or we really will hang separately. I said back in 2016 this was going to be a marathon and not a sprint and we have so very many miles to go. There is still time to save what is good about this country, and to build something new and better on part of the foundation that is still good. We can do it if we stick together and leave no one behind this time. We can do it if we don’t let them split us and get us all scrambling for the crumbs instead of insisting on pie for everyone.

This isn’t over. Not quite yet, though it might feel like it may be for some of us. Let us not go softly into that good night. Let us rage together at the dying of the light.

* "Midnight Pals: Jewish Noir:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/721215690590339072/midnight-pals-jewish-noir?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: A Fable:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/721521022058233856/midnight-pals-a-fable?source=share

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* BPAL Charity Fundraiser "TRIUMPH IN MY SONG:" https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/triumph-in-my-song/

* Support the WGA. "Entertainment Community Fund:" https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

* "DIY Box Fan Air Filter Directions:" https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk261/files/inline-files/DIY%20Air%20Purifier%20Directions_English.Spanish_0.pdf

* My oldest continuous friend is trying to raise money to buy games for a Cat Rescue fundraiser. This cat rescue is no kill and places most cats in foster homes until they can be adopted. They are good people there and it's a huge number of cats many needing basic or more serious healthcare.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/318lgf6fa0?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1smSQTz7deMSVUBsEg30AdhQ-zeAEHGXOcHXqVUILTlF2MqnIIW49SDVU

* Cool Blackwork Embroidery Patterns for Beginners: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thehaberdasheress/?etsrc=sdt

* If you would like to help support me and the Cats: paypal.me/Gwydion

( Links Underneath: )

* I'm Too Tired Too Weed things that aren't needed in the Debt ceiling section. i'm a little better tpoday, but not great.

* "Sudan military ruler seeks removal of UN envoy in letter to UN chief, who is ‘shocked’ by the demand:" https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-un-envoy-military-rsf-f88097b73244a90a02158ce781a9e44f

* "Nearly 1.4 million people displaced in Sudan since civil war erupted, UN report says :" https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/28/africa/sudan-displaced-people-gender-violence-intl-hnk/index.html

* "‘As the night descended, they came and killed’: Sudan’s other war:" https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2023/5/30/as-the-night-descended-they-came-and-killed-sudans-other-war

* "Tens of thousands protest overhaul for 21st weekend, but turnout remains lower:" https://www.timesofisrael.com/tens-of-thousands-protest-overhaul-for-21st-weekend-but-turnout-remains-lower/

* "French unions plan June 6 protests against Macron and his pension law:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-unions-call-new-day-protest-against-pension-reform-june-6-2023-05-02/

* "What's next for French protesters?:" https://www.npr.org/2023/05/29/1178747991/whats-next-for-french-protesters

* I didn't have much hope, but still it makes me sad. "Erdogan cements his power with a victory in Turkey's presidential runoff election:" https://www.npr.org/2023/05/28/1178660299/erdogan-has-claimed-victory-in-turkeys-presidential-runoff-election

* "Türkiye’s president Erdoğan uses election victory speech to take aim at ‘LGBT forces’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/29/recep-tayyip-erdogan-lgbtq-gay-turkey/

* "Israel’s Far Right Government is a Gift to Settlers:"

( Embed: )

* "India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks — experts are baffled:" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01770-y

---

***************

* "Ukraine says Russia plans to simulate accident at nuclear plant:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-russia-plans-simulate-accident-nuclear-power-plant-2023-05-26/

Publicizing it makes it less likely they'll do it, I suspect.

Honestly, I've been expecting them to arrange an "accidental" meltdown since they seized the plant as it is easier to get plausible deniability than actually nuking Ukraine as they keep threatening to do as part of their genocide, but I limit the amount of speculation I do in print.

* "Russia, Ukraine fail to embrace IAEA plan to protect nuclear plant:" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/un-nuclear-watchdog-asks-russia-ukraine-protect-zaporizhzhia-plant-2023-05-30/

***************

* "Supreme Court sides with 94-year-old woman who accused government of stealing her home equity:" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-sides-94-year-mn-woman-striking/story?id=99600689

* "Let's talk about SCOTUS and checks and balances....:"

( Embed: )

* "Biden reaches milestone in judicial appointments:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/biden-reaches-milestone-in-judicial-appointments-177593413777

* "Biden signs debt limit bill, avoiding U.S. default:" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-lifting-us-debt-limit-2023-06-03/

* "Here are the 6 must-know provisions of the new debt ceiling deal :" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/28/6-pillars-of-the-debt-ceiling-deal-00099108

Republicans wanted to dramatically increase the national debt through credit default, by preventing the government from paying the bills, but have settled for a smaller increase in the national debt by increasing the military budget while lowering revenues through cuts to IRS enforcement targeted at billionaire and the major corporation tax cheats.

They are lying when they say they want to lower the debt. They always dramatically increase it when they are in charge and all the things they were demanding in exchange for not blowing up the world economy was designed to increase the debt and harm ordinary people.

Democrats, are far more fiscally responsible generally as the money they tend to want to spend is an investment in things like the economy, education, health care, while all republicans want to do is suck money out of the economy to give to the extremely wealthy and frittering it away on our massively bloated military budget while cutting anything that invests in the future or ordinary Americans.

Never buy the lie of Republican fiscal responsibility.

* Saying the quiet part out loud. "Grassley: GOP ‘not interested’ in whether Biden accusations are ‘accurate’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/grassley-gop-not-interested-in-whether-biden-accusations-are-accurate-179203141918

* "Marjorie Taylor Greene slays irony, stresses House ‘decorum’:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/marjorie-taylor-greene-slays-irony-stresses-house-decorum-rcna86223

* "Robert Garcia Counters Majorie Taylor Greene's Homophobia With Resolution Honoring All Families:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-garcia-families

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

* The Indivisible Guide: "A Practical Guide to defeating MAGA:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* "Minnesota lawmakers bring national popular vote one step closer to reality:" https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/05/24/minnesota-lawmakers-bring-national-popular-vote-one-step-closer-to-reality/

* "Zooey Zephyr & the Politics of Civility:"

( Embed: )

* If she doesn't pay attention to politics or the news, why the fuck is she in politics? "Nebraska senator who voted for anti-trans, anti-abortion bill says she wasn’t paying attention:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/24/nebraska-senator-christy-armanderiz/

* "New RNC Debate Rules Could Limit GOP Primary Field:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/new-rnc-debate-rules-could-limit-gop-primary-field-179734597857

* "Hayes: Biden delivering on 2020 promises makes for a strong 2024 pitch:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-biden-delivering-on-2020-promises-makes-for-a-strong-2024-pitch-178522693779

* "Republican Primary Field Expands as 2024 Approaches:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/republican-primary-field-expands-as-2024-approaches-177592901887

* "One-on-One with 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/one-on-one-with-2024-republican-presidential-candidate-former-gov-asa-hutchinson-177773125916

* "7 telling moments from Ron DeSantis’ 2024 Twitter launch: Hate, lies and reheated Trumpism:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/ron-desantis-twitter-president-bid/

* "Fox News mocks Ron DeSantis after ‘disaster’ presidential launch:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/fox-news-ron-desantis-disaster-twitter-2024-campaign/

* "Let's talk about DeSantis and a failure to launch....:"

( Embed: )

* "‘Disastrous position:’ The DeSantis bid to be the anti-vaccine candidate:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-disastrous-position-the-desantis-bid-to-be-the-anti-vaccine-candidate-179577925819

* "Would Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis be worse for LGBTQ+ rights in the US?:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/26/donald-trump-ron-desantis-president/

* "Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general who said trans youth care is ‘child abuse’, faces impeachment:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/26/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas/

* "Impeached Texas AG Ken Paxton tries out Trump defense playbook:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/impeached-texas-ag-ken-paxton-tries-out-trump-defense-playbook-178524741975

**********

* "Complexities of a RICO case seen in wide-ranging Georgia investigation of Trump:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/complexities-of-a-rico-case-seen-in-wide-ranging-georgia-investigation-of-trump-179619909811

* "Trump reportedly building revenge list against feds investigating him:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/trump-reportedly-building-revenge-list-against-feds-investigating-him-178556485747

* "Lordy! Special counsel reportedly has audio of Trump talking about secret document he kept:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/lordy-special-counsel-reportedly-has-audio-of-trump-talking-about-secret-document-he-kept-178813509751

* "Hayes: New evidence points to Trump motive in documents case:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-new-evidence-points-to-trump-motive-in-documents-case-179575877895

* "What the latest Trump tapes twist is all about and why it matters:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/what-the-latest-trump-tapes-twist-is-all-about-and-why-it-matters-179271237736

* "Lordy! Special counsel reportedly has audio of Trump talking about secret document he kept:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/lordy-special-counsel-reportedly-has-audio-of-trump-talking-about-secret-document-he-kept-178813509751

* "Trump's lawyers reportedly beginning to turn on each other:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/trump-s-lawyers-reportedly-beginning-to-turn-on-each-other-178549829715

**********

* I am wondering what A.L. Milne would think about all of it. "DISD parents concerned about ‘run, hide, fight’ Winnie-the-Pooh book:" https://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2023/05/winnie-pooh-run-hide-fight/

* "8 people killed, 71 injured in mass shootings over Memorial Day weekend:" https://www.axios.com/2023/05/30/mass-shootings-memorial-day-weekend

* "New Biden Asylum Policy Will Hurt LGBTQ+ Migrants and Others, Activists Say:" https://www.advocate.com/news/biden-asylum-immigration-policy-citicized

* "Transgender Woman Given Another Chance to Fight Deportation by U.S. Supreme Court:" https://www.advocate.com/law/supreme-court-trans-immigration

* "'Our governor is a job-killing moron': DeSantis immigration policy threatens state economy:" https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-our-governor-is-a-job-killing-moron-desantis-immigration-policy-threatens-state-economy-179258437978

* The police decided to murder an innocent unarmed 12 year old for the crime of calling the police for help. It is lucky the child lived. "Mom demands answers after 11-year-old son allegedly shot by police officer at home:" https://abcnews.go.com/US/mom-demands-justice-after-11-year-son-shot/story?id=99598767

* "Why Cops Are Untouchable with Joanna Schwartz:"

( Embed: )

* This is an older piece, but I think relevant given the current Target stuff. "How Target Got Cozy With the Cops, Turning Black Neighbors Into Suspects:" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-08-25/how-target-tgt-police-surveilled-black-neighbors-in-inner-cities

* "In New York Prisons, Guards Who Brutalize Prisoner Rarely Get Fired:" https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/05/19/new-york-prison-corrections-officer-abuse-prisoners

* CW: Sexual Assault. "Strip searches, trauma, isolation: Trans men describe life behind bars:" https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/strip-searches-trauma-isolation-trans-men-describe-life-bars-rcna6490

* "ESPN Anchor Under Fire For Mocking Indigenous NHL Player's Name:" https://advocatechannel.com/john-anderson-espn-under-fire-mocking-zach-whitecloud-indigenous-name

* "Don’t visit Florida if you’re LGBTQ+, Human Rights Campaign warns: ‘It’s dangerous’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/human-rights-campaign-equality-florida-ron-desantis/

* "'Don't Say Gay' Bill Signed in Iowa; GOP Gov. OK's Ratting on Trans Students:" https://www.advocate.com/dont-say-gay/don-t-say-gay-law-signed-in-iowa

* "Marjorie Taylor Greene, who calls drag queens ‘groomers’, thinks it’s fine for her boyfriend to do drag:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/27/marjorie-taylor-greene-drag-partner-hypocrisy/

* "As Predicted, Anti-Drag Laws Are Being Weaponized to Silence Trans People:" https://www.themarysue.com/montana-library-cancels-transgender-speaker-because-of-anti-drag-law/

* "How to Stop Neo-Nazis From Crashing Pride Month:" https://newrepublic.com/article/173096/stop-neo-nazis-crashing-pride-month

* "Florida Rejected Social Studies Lessons — You'll Never Guess Which Ones:" https://advocatechannel.com/florida-rejected-social-studies-lessons-youll-never-guess-which-ones

* "Lost Illusions: The Untold Story of the Hit Show’s Poisonous Culture:" https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/lost-tv-show-culture

* CW: Pedophilia, Domestic Abuse. Given how many of the people who think all queer people are pedophiles turn out to be pedophiles, maybe law enforcement ought to take a closer look every time a politician publicly announces they don't understand the concept of consent. "LGBTQ book ban proponent faces felony child molestation charge in Missouri:" https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/lgbtq-book-ban-advocate-faces-felony-child-molestation-charge-missouri-rcna14763

* CW: Pedophilia. "White nationalist pleads guilty in child porn case after arrest for trying to riot at LGBTQ pride:" https://lawandcrime.com/crime/white-nationalist-pleads-guilty-in-child-porn-case-after-arrest-for-trying-to-riot-at-lgbtq-pride/

* CW: Pedophilia. The far right's every accusation is a confession. "Andrew Hazelton, reputed neo-Nazi and son of Westford Select Board member Scott Hazelton, arrested on child porn charges :" https://www.lowellsun.com/2021/05/07/andrew-hazelton-reputed-neonazi-and-son-of-westford-select-board-member-scott-hazelton-arrested-on-child-porn-charges/

* "ITV ‘investigated’ rumours of Phillip Schofield’s relationship with younger employee:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/27/phillip-schofield-itv-affair/

---

*********************************************

* "Hospitals in Two States Denied an Abortion to a Miscarrying Patient. Investigators Say They Broke Federal Law.:" https://www.propublica.org/article/two-hospitals-denied-abortion-miscarrying-patient-breaking-federal-law?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

*********************************************

* "Pansexual, intersex and transgender people worst represented in LGBTQ+ media, damning survey finds:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/26/just-like-us-lgbt-representation-media-young-adults-survey/

* "As a teacher, I’ve watched students learn misogyny and anti-LGBTQ+ hate from the internet:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/teacher-misogyny-anti-lgbtq-schools-andrew-tate/

* "Uganda’s president Museveni signs Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law: ‘How many will die?’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/29/uganda-anti-homosexuality-act-signed-law-yoweri-museveni-lgbt/

* "Polish politician suggests LGBTQ-friendly schools are staffed by ‘paedophiles’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/poland-mikolaj-pawlak-schools-lgbtq-investigation/

* "Hong Kong: Queer teachers forced to hide their relationship say marriage equality would change everything:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/24/hong-kong-same-sex-marriage-lgbtq-2/

* "Woman carrying Pride flag shot in head with BB gun after Polish LGBTQ+ parade: ‘Attack on all of us’ :" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/poland-lgbtq-equality-march-bb-gun-assault/

* "Malaysia seizes rainbow Pride-themed Swatch watches:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/malaysian-swatch-pride-watches/

* "Mexico unveils new non-binary passport: ‘Diversity enriches and flourishes’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/21/mexico-gender-marker-passports/

* "Overturning British colonial-era ‘buggery’ law ‘first step’ to protecting LGBTQ+ people in Guyana:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/21/guyana-lgbtq-rights-british-colonial-law-sasod/

* "EHRC suspends ‘bullying’ investigation into chair Kishwer Falkner:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/26/ehrc-investigation-suspended-baroness-falkner/

* "Anti-trans Tory MP Miriam Cates doesn’t want children ‘changing gender in school’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/27/miriam-cates-tory-trans-children-schools/

* "Tory MP Mark Jenkinson calls trans women ‘men’ in unprompted Twitter attacks:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/mark-jenkinson-twitter-trans-women-misgendering/

* "Rishi Sunak asked to condemn schools simply for supporting trans kids:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/24/rishi-sunak-schools-trans-guidance-pronouns/

* "Ex-Mermaids CEO shuts down suggestion Tavistock gender clinic links were inappropriate:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/mermaids-telegraph-susie-green-gender-affirming-healthcare/

* Don't ever kid yourselves. They want us all dead. That's the goal. "Sacked anti-trans teacher Joshua Sutcliffe claims ‘all sin deserves the death penalty’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/24/teacher-joshua-sutcliffe-piers-morgan-sin-death-penalty/

* "Oxford University dons back queer students opposing ‘gender-critical’ Kathleen Stock talk :" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/oxford-university-kathleen-stock/

* "Drag queen expertly shuts down anti-LGBTQ+ protester at Birmingham Pride parade: ‘The only sin is you spreading hate’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/27/birmingham-pride-drag-queen-protester/

* "Pitiful turnout of anti-drag protesters countered with ‘joyful’ LGBTQ+ street party:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/turning-point-uk-drag-event-honor-oak/

* "Trans and non-binary participants in Gender Wars documentary accuse Channel 4 of ‘misleading’ them:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/gender-wars-documentary-channel-4-trans-non-binary-backlash/

* "So, a Top Guardian Editor Was Married to the Founder of Mumsnet:" https://judedoyle.medium.com/so-a-top-guardian-editor-was-married-to-the-founder-of-mumsnet-836cddf8fdc4

* "Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups, AP finds:" https://apnews.com/article/transgender-health-model-legislation-5cc4a7cb4ab69150f670d06fd0f361ab

* "Florida's Trans Bathroom Ban Signed: Arrests To Follow Regardless Of Legal Gender Status:" https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/floridas-trans-bathroom-ban-signed

* The Republican War on Reality continues. "Montana signing bill defining sex as binary compared to legislating that Earth is flat:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/24/montana-bill-sex-binary-backlash-zooey-zephyr/

* "Georgia’s new anti-trans law also disparages autistic people like me:" https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/georgias-new-anti-trans-law-also-disparages-autistic-people-rcna76858

* Intersex people are now barred from all public restrooms as well and are classified as "disabled" under the new law. "Kansas now has some of nation's strictest anti-trans laws, banning bathroom access and ID changes:" https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2023-04-27/kansas-now-has-the-nations-strictest-anti-trans-law-banning-access-to-bathrooms-and-shelters

* Six Anti-Trans Bills in Hawaii: https://translegislation.com/bills/2023/HI

* "Cruel bill banning trans healthcare killed off in Louisiana – by just one vote:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/louisiana-fred-mills-matt-walsh/

* "Indiana governor signs cruel bill forcing teachers to out trans kids to their parents:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/06/indiana-governor-anti-trans-name-pronouns-bill/

* "Kansas City Is Now Sanctuary City for Those Seeking Gender-Affirming Care:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/sanctuary-city-transgender-kansas-city

* "Kansas City, Missouri becomes an LGBTQ sanctuary city:" https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/kansas-city-missouri-becomes-an-lgbtq-sanctuary-city-179736133598

* "San Francisco DA Defends Decision Not to Charge Black Trans Man's Killer:" https://www.advocate.com/news/black-transgender-man-killed-walgreens

* "Mum of disabled son blames anti-trans law for being refused entry to public toilet:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/26/anti-trans-bathroom-bill-kansas-disabled-cisgender-son/

* "Florida Publix Refuses to Write 'Trans' on a Cake, Citing Company Policy:" https://www.advocate.com/business/publix-florida-trans-cake

* "Enraged parents call for boycott of school Pride Day assembly to keep kids ‘innocent’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/29/anti-lgbtq-parents-call-to-boycott-la-school-over-pride-day-assembly/

* "Lil Nas X mocks fragile right-wing backlash to Target Pride collection:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/27/lil-nas-x-target-pride-backlash/

* "LGBTQ+ anti-bullying group receives violent threats amid Target backlash: ‘Dangerous lies’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/29/glsen-target-fox-news/

* "Trans youth hold their own joy-filled prom after teen excluded from graduation:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/23/trans-youth-prom-washington-dc/

* "Bud Light truck drivers targeted with homophobic abuse: ‘Gay beer salesmen’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/27/bud-light-truck-drivers-homophobic-abuse/

* "LA Dodgers issue grovelling apology to drag act after uninviting them from Pride event:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/23/la-dodgers-sisters-of-perpetual-indulgence-pride/

* "British Cycling’s new ‘open’ category will put trans athletes at ‘major disadvantage’, says former racer:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/british-cycling-trans-women-ban/

* "Gay & Bisexual Men Now Eligible to Donate Blood Under New FDA Policies:" https://www.advocate.com/health/gay-men-donate-blood-new

* "Blockbuster PrEP Lawsuit: Gilead Wins Over U.S. Government:" https://www.hivplusmag.com/prevention/blockbuster-prep-lawsuit-gilead-wins-over-u-s-government

* "New mpox cases found in UK: ‘The infection has not gone away’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/25/mpox-new-cases-uk-london/

* Regarding the abusiveness of ABA: https://www.tumblr.com/allaboardthecolumboat/718451358139826176/i-thought-i-had-already-posted-this-here-but-it?source=share

---

************************************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************************************

* "Earth is ‘really quite sick now’ and in danger zone in nearly all ecological ways, study says:" https://apnews.com/article/earth-environment-climate-change-nature-sick-2dded06915af4645253f5c29abff4794

* "Disappearing lakes, dead crops and trucked-in water: Drought-stricken Spain is running dry:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/02/europe/spain-drought-catalonia-heat-wave-climate-intl/index.html

* "Eastern Canada's Halifax declares emergency over wildfire, shutting schools:" https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/eastern-canadas-halifax-declares-emergency-over-wildfire-2023-05-29/

* "Across Canada, tens of thousands have evacuated due to wildfires in recent weeks:" https://www.npr.org/2023/05/31/1179241527/across-canada-tens-of-thousands-have-evacuated-due-to-wildfires-in-recent-weeks

* "Avalanche kills 11 members of nomadic tribe in northern Pakistan:" https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/avalanche-kills-11-members-nomadic-tribe-northern-pakistan-2023-05-27/

************************************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************************************

* "Climate-fueled insurance crisis hits California:" https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/05/31/climate-fueled-insurance-crisis-hits-california-00082767

* "‘Murderers’ and ‘criminals’: Meteorologists face unprecedented harassment from conspiracy theorists:" https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/27/world/meteorologists-conspiracy-harassment-abuse-climate-intl/index.html

* "AI Deepfakes of True-Crime Victims Are a Waking Nightmare:" https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/true-crime-tiktok-ai-deepfake-victims-children-1234743895/

This needs to fucking go. It’s incredibly exploitative. It is bad enough to see sensationalist coverage of someone you love who was murdered. It is fucking creepy to see fictionalized and/or thinly veiled versions of a crime that lives forever in your head. This is beyond the pale.

Those poor families.

* I am grumpy that I now know what knotting is because of AI coverage.

* "Combating Global Animal Extinction with Clones and Frozen Sperm:"

( Embed: )

* "Ray Stevenson, Actor in ‘Punisher: War Zone,’ ‘RRR’ and ‘Thor’ Films, Dies at 58 :" https://variety.com/2023/film/people-news/ray-stevenson-dead-punisher-ahsoka-1235621641/

* We've been getting whiffs of the wildfire smoke now and then in other parts of town, but it only reached us here in the cat asylum before dawn of May 26. My lungs have been doing above average well this spring, and when the tree I'm particularly allergic to started mating in earnest earlier this week, it mostly meant a runny nose and a bit of extra itch.

I can already tell, the fire's changing that. I'm starting to gunk up, my eyes are itching, and the smoke is giving me a headache. The smell got really nasty around 8ish AM. We should have put the livingroom filter in, but we've had such good breeze out of Alaska through the weird little wind tunnel where I live, that I was putting it off so the cats could enjoy the open window.

Canada is burning, burning, burning, and the only Republican response is to try to force the repeal of the infrastructure Law's climate measures in debt negotiation.

* Thursday I woke up in bad shape. I've been off an on extreme pain for the last month, and it's pushing my body to it's limits. The arm attached to my damaged shoulder is my dominant one, and it was barely functioning and startlingly painful. I'm struggling with stupid stuff like rolling over in bed and pouring tea. I keep giving myself scalds and small burns because some cooking tasks need two hands doing separate things, and my arm shakes or randomly loses power for tiny intervals. This kind of pain fucks with sleep, and I end up losing hours hear and there because I got a phone call or went to pee and can't get back to sleep which adds more strain to the system.

My arm was doing this and I had the shakes. I woke up exhausted and couldn't go back to sleep after. When I eventually dragged myself out of my room, it was really clear staying up for the Friday morning cleaner was going to be a nightmare, but I did it, and got things done. The aggregate had not nearly all the things in it I wanted to put in, but it went out. I even managed to do a little TUMBLR post programming, which I'd barely managed anything of in the past week. I haven't been this far behind in over a year. I am, in fact, so far behind that my PRIDE Month programming started half a month early. Which is fine, but it means there is very little leeway for me. I kept being to tired to do it.

The cleaner had called Thursday night to ask if they could come early, to which I readily agreed. I picked the time I did on the grounds it would be hard to get anyone to fill an earlier slot. The time they said they'd come passed. No call. No cleaner. The official start time passed. no call, no cleaner. I didn't want to get them in trouble, but I was shaking even worse with pain and exhaustion and with forcing myself to stay up 3-4 hours after my body wanted to go to bed, and also I'd pulled my bedding apart because I needed the sheet changed and my damaged arms really can't do it anymore. (My non-dominant shoulder is also messed up, just not as badly, and the mattress is too heavy for arms that go limp if you push them.).

At twenty past the hour, I call returned the cleaner. No answer. Then I looked up the number for the agency, and left them a call me back. Around the half hour the cleaner got back to me sounding terrible and telling me they'd cancelled. Apparently this is when the Asshole Agency got back to me leaving a message saying they couldn't reach me with a long robot survey thing on the end. This is the only message on the answering service and had a time stamp matching the cleaner call.

I am now furious and frustrated to the point of tears. Why did no one call my to tell me of the cancellation, preferably before I took the bed apart half an hour before the official start time? Why did no one call me at all, leaving it to me to call around? what exactly is the procedure with a cancellation? Do they send someone else? Reschedule? How the fuck am I putting a fitted sheet back on that mattress so I can sleep? I can hear Squirrel snoring. If they had called even ten to fifteen minutes after expected start time to tell me no one was coming, I could have got Squirrel to help.

Insert cursing here.

I still needed a lung treatment and to stay up for forage delivery, so I called asshole agency again and set up a call back. I moved the phone to where I could reach. I set up a treatment. Tavy curled up for lung time on top of me. About half way through the phone panicked him and he clawed the shit out of me in the scramble for safety. Let us hope he hasn't given me yet another staph infection. (I'm pretty sure the sore on my outer thigh that won't heal from last week is another staph infection from his claws as the normal antibiotic cream does nothing). I still have the cream from the January staph infection and had just scaled up to it for the leg infection, so I'm doing the deeper claw marks on my stomach with it, because I really don't want more staph infections on my stomach and I can do it when I'm treating my leg.

Anyway, Asshole agency guy lied to my face that they repeated tried to contact me about the cancellation. I was sitting literally right next to the phone. The ringer is working. It never rang once except when the cleaner called back. They left no message about cancellation, only the one from when I was talking to the cleaner. If they'd tried to call and for some reason neither phone's ringer was working, the TV also puts a message announcing calls on screen which really fucking helps when the lung motor is going. He insisted it was a phone call and not a text. (I only have a landline, but people have trouble grasping that some people don't have text capability.) I can only conclude he lied about one or both of these things. Add white hot fury shaking to the my body is on the verge of cascade failure from being pushed to hard and being in too much pain for too long.

While I had him one the phone I did ask about if I could request the nice hard working cleaner from last week as a first choice. It is allowed apparently. I which there was some sort of instruction manual except for one poorly designed and probably deliberately uninformative web site. I have listed cool queer cleaner as preferred. I also now have answers about the rescheduling system.

Right at hang up they listed how many hours of service I have left for the year. (Things like this reset benefits at the end of the year without carry over). I did the math. I have two extra months of two hour service slots. Which will be great in the exhausting back half of the year, but which is concerning as hell for next year, because that is clearly not enough for a year of weekly two hour cleanings. O.o

But that is next year's problem.

By the time forage delivery came (right as lung time was finishing), and I'd sorted stuff and put away the perishables, and endured the torture of the fitted sheet replacement and putting the rest of the bed stuff back where it goes, I'd been up nearly as long as I would have been if a cleaner had come. I don't blame the cleaner who sounded genuinely awful on the phone. I do blame Asshole Agency. (The company name is so obnoxious and condescending and literally patronizing, that it makes me angry just thinking about it. It was no surprise at all that they exploit the shit out of the workers and lie about phone calls).

Last week cleaner said they were scheduled for next week. Assuming I haven't scared them off, that will be good.

* ....And no cleaner today. At least the Asshole Agendcy called. Twice. Once to reschedule later in the day; once to cancel. These were two of the seven phone calls in the five hour sleep period I had between deciding I was too tired to continue and the alarm for the second cleaner time. I actually missed the second call from Asshole Agency, as The call before them was one of those invasive mandatory health surveys they force Medicare people to do. This wasn't the actual medicare annual harrassment, but the agency the medical social workers work for. So that ate an hour of sleep between that and the not being able to get back to sleep after and then having to get up to sort out the laundry and forage box situation. I didn't think to check messages until the cleaner turned up late. I've tried rescheduling for Tuesday. at least Asshole agency was answering the phone.

I know it's generally considered reasonable and normal to wake up a disabled person in extreme pain six times in a five hour sleep, but I resent it so much. Especially today when even lying still in the safest position the pain was unbearable and trying to ewalk a dangerous nightmare. Plus, you know, my shoulder joint also being a trip to hell all by itself. I had to give in and take a stronger pain pill, always a risky prospect given how I respond to them. At least they all let me sleep after I finished with asshole agency.

Tavy jumping on my head from the upper shelf, where he is not allowed to be, was the blood icing on the pain cake, as he clawed the shit out of my scalp when he landed, and scalp wounds are famously bloody. I had no one to help clean the wounds and ended up getting rubbing alcohol in my eye, mostly becusse my arms are barely working just like my legs right now. He's a tiny terror, but his weight dropped from that height onto my head did not improve my headache either. It took three hours more to get everyone fed and my own dinner made.

This is all way too hard.

* My oldest continuous friend is trying to raise money to buy games for a Cat Rescue fundraiser. This cat rescue is no kill and places most cats in foster homes until they can be adopted. They are good people there and it's a huge number of cats many needing basic or more serious healthcare.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/318lgf6fa0?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1smSQTz7deMSVUBsEg30AdhQ-zeAEHGXOcHXqVUILTlF2MqnIIW49SDVU

* I'm still chugging along with the Babylon 5 movies as of this writing. I finished River of souls and moved on to the extras and JMS said something about the central dilemma of the movie that I think was wrong. I mean, yes, there is a debate built in to the Soul Hunter scenario, around what happens after you die, but he's missed the forest for the trees.

The actual debate is simpler than he thinks. The question is not, are the Soul Hunters right about their being no afterlife or reincarnation or what have you. No. The central issue is Consent.

Did the person being Collected consent to being collected? The answer is a pretty resounding no in both the original Soul Hunter episode and this one. The Membari did not consent to having the souls of their notables stolen. They resisted violently the attempt to steal the soul of Dukat. The Souls stolen in the original Soul hunter episode emphatically did not consent. The planet of souls stolen in River of Souls are furious about their imprisonment. The souls are capable of expressing consent or lack thereof, but the Soul Hunters didn't ask them.

It does not matter one whit if there is an after life or reincarnation or nothing at all. Even if the Soul hunters are correct that there is nothing after death in the objective sense, they are still not heroes saving people. They could ask the people they collect if they do or don't want eternal life in a whisper gallery. If they don't, imprisonment is cruel and unusual punishment on an unimaginable scale. If they do want it? Totally fine.

The thing is a character actually brings up that imprisonment against ones will for a million years or possibly forever is a pretty good definition of hell. characters definitely confront the soul Hunter with the consent issue.

It's textual. Death of the author and all that. I think JMS got distracted by the more theological debate and missed the underlying theme in his own work because he's so close to it. It happens. This is not remotely an attack on JMS. One of the many, many things I love about B5 is how important consent and free will are thematically to the whole series, whether you're talking Vorlons and Shadows, or Psy Corps vs. Rogues, or Centauri vs. Narns, or Fascism vs.Sheridan's and Mars's resistance, or individual episodes, like the one with the child that needed surgery or the plague episode or Epsilon 5 or Sinclair and B4 and tons of other things.

B5 is good anti-fascist and anti-colonialist science fiction because it asks hard questions about ethics and theology and government, but never ever lets go of that central championing of consent and free will. It can have all this ethical and cultural complexity because it's built on a foundation of resistance to the people trying to steal the choices away, and it never ever sides with people saying my choice is the only right one for you, even if you like the person trying to imposed their choice on someone else, even if you as an audience member thinks the choice being made is the wrong one.

I fucking love this show. I'll never stop being angry that season 4 ended up too dense because of cancellation, leaving season 5 a bit light. I'll never not be furious Crusade got cancelled after one season. Wear their flaws and problems? Hell yes, but it's still the best TV made in the '90's as far as I'm concerned. (I loved other shows from the '90's deeply, especially the brilliant Deep space Nine, but B5 wins. It just does).

It is heartbreaking that the generations after mine have mostly forgotten it or never have heard of it.

* Van Helsing gives; Dracula takes: https://www.tumblr.com/vickyvicarious/718338134745677824/i-like-the-contrast-to-pointed-out-with-the-loving?source=share

* "Jonathan Harker and Doomed Bride imagery:" https://www.tumblr.com/anony-geist/718672560043311104/jonathan-harker-and-doomed-bride-imagery-lenore?source=share

* "Midnight Pals: What a Deal:" https://www.tumblr.com/bitterkarella/718958767502491648/midnight-pals-what-a-deal?source=share

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* Support the WGA. "Entertainment Community Fund:" https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

* A resistance website for organizing and publicizing anti-censorship pro-education etc. rallies/protests/walkouts. "Walkout2learn:" https://www.walkout2learn.org/

* New Indivisible Guide! "A Practical Guide to defeating MAG:" https://indivisible.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/20220104_Indivisible_%20A%20Practical%20Guide%20to%20Defeating%20MAGA.pdf

* A very old friend and all around stand up guy wrote this. "Safest Family on the Block: 101 Tips, Tricks, Habits, and Hacks to Protect Your Family at Home, at School, and in the World:" https://www.amazon.com/Safest-Family-Block-Tricks-Protect-ebook/dp/B0C4JZ1QRX

* My oldest continuous friend is trying to raise money to buy games for a Cat Rescue fundraiser. This cat rescue is no kill and places most cats in foster homes until they can be adopted. They are good people there and it's a huge number of cats many needing basic or more serious healthcare.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/318lgf6fa0?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1smSQTz7deMSVUBsEg30AdhQ-zeAEHGXOcHXqVUILTlF2MqnIIW49SDVU

* Cool Blackwork Embroidery Patterns for Beginners: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thehaberdasheress/?etsrc=sdt

* If you would like to help support me and the Cats: paypal.me/Gwydion

( Links Underneath: )