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In the middle of the night last night Republicans in the House narrowly — real narrowly, by just one vote — passed Donald Trump’s very maturely titled “Big, Beautiful Bill.” We’d assume that was because they were too ashamed to pass it in the light of day, but, well, that would require them to have some capacity for shame, which does not appear to be the case.
The bill includes the largest cuts to Medicare and SNAP in the history of those programs — $698 billion from Medicaid and $267 billion from SNAP. If passed by the Senate, millions and millions (the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates 15 million) will lose their access to healthcare, which we can assume is part of the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, if by “again” they mean “like in 1950” when half of Americans did not have health insurance. Millions will lose the little assistance they get from SNAP, at a time when grocery prices are about to go skyrocketing, thanks to the Trump tariffs.
So beautiful! And healthy!
Incredibly, House Republicans actually managed to make the bill even more draconian than its original version by moving up the start date for the Medicaid work requirements from the beginning of 2029 to the end of 2026. You know, because people work better when they’re sick. It also includes financial penalties for providing Medicaid coverage for undocumented immigrants and ends coverage of gender-affirming care not just for minors, as originally written, but for adults as well.
The CBO “estimates that in general, resources would decrease for households in the lowest decile (tenth) of the income distribution, whereas resources would increase for households in the highest decile.” In other words, they’re playing Opposite Robin Hood and stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Nice!
"So many families in our communities are already struggling to put food on the table and pay for their healthcare. For the over 324,000 children, seniors, and people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid in our district, it is the difference between life and death," Rep. Rashida Tlaib said in a statement, according to Common Dreams. "This budget makes $880 billion in cuts that will decimate Medicaid, nearly $300 billion in cuts to food assistance, but increases the Pentagon war machine by $150 billion."
"It's tax cuts for billionaires, and healthcare cuts for our families," she added. "It will take food out of the mouths of hungry kids. Nearly 14 million Americans will lose their healthcare, and thousands of people will needlessly die. We will not stop fighting to block this budget from being signed into law."
Given that this passed by just one vote — 215 to 214, with all Democrats opposing, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland) voting present and Republicans Thomas Massie of of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio voting against — it’s unlikely that it will pass in the Senate.
That being said, it’s highly unlikely that we will be getting a tax bill that does not completely fuck over the poor in service of the rich any time in the next four years, so we have that to look forward to.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
The Friday Five for 23 May 2025
May 22nd, 2025 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anais_pf posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thefridayfiveThese questions were suggested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thegreymouser.
1. What was the best gift you received?
2. What was the worst gift you received?
3. What gift did you wish for, but never got?
4. What was the best present you gave?
5. What was the worst present you gave?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
thegreymouser.1. What was the best gift you received?
2. What was the worst gift you received?
3. What gift did you wish for, but never got?
4. What was the best present you gave?
5. What was the worst present you gave?
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
May 22nd, 2025 06:28 pmprofiterole_readsMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning was a lot of fun! But a bit long, they could have cut a few scenes at the beginning of the movie.
I loved the butch in the submarine. Now that I'm back home, I've looked her up. She's called Kodiak and she's played by Katy O'Brian, who is a lesbian. <3
I loved the butch in the submarine. Now that I'm back home, I've looked her up. She's called Kodiak and she's played by Katy O'Brian, who is a lesbian. <3
Judge: South Sudan (Or ???) Deportation Flight Violated F*ck Out Of Court Order
May 22nd, 2025 03:15 pmwonkette_feed
A federal judge in Massachusetts said Wednesday that the Trump administration was “unquestionably in violation of this court’s order” when it tried to deport eight detainees to South Sudan on Tuesday, because the men didn’t get an opportunity to challenge their removal to that country or any other third-country destination.
US District Judge Brian E. Murphy Found that, in violation of his April 18 order in a class action case, the feds hustled the men onto a deportation flight without due process, ignoring his order that anyone being deported to somewhere other than their home country must be informed of their destination and have the chance to say they fear being tortured or killed if sent there, as if the feds care about that, because as DHS spokescreep Tricia McLaughlin repeatedly said in a presser yesterday, the men were all “monsters,” and you don’t allow due process for monsters, do you?
Here’s video of that presser, which you should not watch if fascism makes you hurl. Note that McLaughlin and other DHS officials repeatedly lie about Judge Murphy, accusing him of wanting to return all the monsters because he loves monsters, when in fact Murphy made clear that the US can deport people, but only if it follows the goddamn Constitution.
Let’s be clear: Unlike the people Trump has disappeared to El Salvador under the phony pretext that they’re enemy combatants in our war with gangs, these were all people who were convicted of serious crimes in the US and completed their prison sentences. They might, as the government claims, be a danger to the public if released, but nobody is arguing they be released.
It’s normal for DHS to deport immigrant crimers after they finish their sentences, but in the case of these detainees, their home countries refused to accept them back. In such cases, it’s also legal to deport people who have standing deportation orders to a third country that agrees to take them. That’s all allowed as long as the deportees have due process, which they have had up until this week.
But the Trump administration is in a hurry, so the Constitution be damned, which is why this is happening, not because Murphy has a soft spot for crimers.
Much of Wednesday’s hearing took place under seal, since the government contends that the details of the deportations, including the country that agreed to take the men, are classified. But after hearing testimony from both sides in private, Murphy explained why the deportation flight wasn’t legal.
Instead of receiving adequate notice of their removal, the detainees, who were imprisoned in Texas, were only notified of their pending removal sometime Monday evening after the close of business hours, then driven to the airport at 9:30 local time Tuesday morning and loaded onto a chartered plane, giving them no time to actually contact an attorney or family members.
In a brief order issued after the hearing, Murphy wrote,
To be clear, this is not one of those hard cases. […] [The] non-citizens at issue had fewer than 24 hours’ notice, and zero business hours’ notice, before being put on a plane and sent to a country as to which the U.S. Department of State issues the following warning: “Do not travel to South Sudan due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” [Bold in original]
DHS still hasn’t said exactly where the men will be sent, or even where they are right now, but denied in yesterday’s presser that they were destined for South Sudan. In the hearing, an ICE official told Judge Murphy the men were “sitting on a plane.” That sounds very legal.
One of the deported migrants, Nyo Mint, may have actually been deported to his home country, Myanmar, but his attorney, Jonathan Ryan, says that
he is still in the dark about where his client was, and that he has been “disappeared.”
“I have not heard from my client,” Ryan said. “How am I supposed to take their word that they sent him to Burma?”
The New York Times reports that flight tracking data shows that the chartered Gulfstream V jet took the men from Harlingen, Texas, to a refueling stop in Ireland, and then landed in Djibouti, in eastern Africa, Wednesday morning. The plane, the paper helpfully notes, is often chartered for immigration flights, and is in fact the same one used to return basketball star Brittney Griner to the US in 2022 after she was released from prison in Russia.
Just to make clear to the government what he means by “adequate notification,” since DHS keeps trying to bum-rush detainees out of the country, Murphy specified in his order, which applies to any third-country deportations from the US, that going forward, that the government must give written notice to “to both the non-citizen and the non-citizen’s counsel in a language the non-citizen can understand”; that the notice must specify where they’re going to be sent; and that the detainee must be given a minimum of 10 days to argue they have a “reasonable fear” of being sent there. If they do fear being sent to a particular country, the government has to reopen their removal case, and even if not, the government must wait another 15 days to allow the non-citizen to “seek reopening of their immigration proceedings.”
Murphy also wants the name of everyone in the government who was involved in the decision to try deporting the men in violation of his April order, in case he decides to charge them with contempt.
In conclusion, the fuckery continues with no letup.
[CNN / NBC News / Order in DVD v. DHS / NYT]
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Big day yesterday
May 22nd, 2025 10:59 ambrithistorianYesterday was L.'s 21st birthday. And of course everyone else was wiped out by flares in their various illnesses. Fortunately, birthdays in our house are low-key affairs: The birthday person gets to choose where we order food from and what movie/show we watch, and then we have cake and ice cream. Yesterday that meant ordering delivery from Burger King and watching Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (which was extremely cheesy and entertaining).
Fortunately, L. has tried alcohol and decided she doesn't like it, so she wasn't missing out by not going out for her first legal drink yesterday, but I still wish her birthday could have been better.
Community Recs Post!
May 22nd, 2025 10:09 amglitteryv posting in recthethingEvery Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.
This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)
(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)
So what cool fics/fancrafts/fanvids/fanart/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.
BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.
This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)
(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)
So what cool fics/fancrafts/fanvids/fanart/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.
BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.
The Grift Plane Has Landed!
May 22nd, 2025 12:55 pmwonkette_feed
Welp, the US government has officially taken receipt of that Qatari 2012 Boeing 747-8 luxury jetliner. But don’t call it a $400 million bribe, it was more like a shakedown. And the plane is actually worth less than half of that, and is going to cost taxpayers potentially billions more than that to make it safe before Donald Trump can use it. Assuming that can even happen within four years. WHAT A DEAL!
Ever have a friend buy a used car as a “project,” and it immediately went into the shop and he eventually had to donate to 1-800-CARS4KIDS because he could never get the damn thing running? Yeah. The plane has to be stripped down to the screws. And the model is not made any more, so if you need to repair it, you might be best off buying another one to use for spare parts, Yugo-style.
And, turns out it’s not much of a gift either, in the way of being freely given: Trump appears to have plotted and manipulated the Qataris into giving it to him.
Trump already has two new Air Force Ones being made at home, Boeing 747-200Bs that are already being built, and taxpayers have already paid $3.9 billion for, plus Boeing has eaten another $2.5 billion in cost overruns. But making them is taking too long, and Trump wants his plane NOOOWWWW! And he wants a bigger plane! WAH!
So he had his envoy to the Middle East/cryptogrift partner Steve Witkoff put together from Boeing a list of their customers who might have planes big and beautiful enough to suit Trump’s taste, and Qatar’s plane was on the list of eight potential rides. Qatar had even already listed the plane for sale four years ago, because it is an aging spare in their fleet of more than a dozen planes that they’re paying to store and maintain. And look at the size of that thing! It’s got four engines and is massively expensive to operate, at least $25,000 an hour.
But he must always have the biggest and gaudiest, that is his brand! So following Trump’s direction, CNN reported, the Pentagon called up to Qatar and said they wanted to buy the plane, or lease it. And the Qataris even flew it to Florida, at their own expense, so Trump could kick the tires and run his Vienna sausage fingers across its “exquisite wood veneers.”
But, before a deal for payment could be worked out, Trump started saying something to the Qataris along the lines of wouldn’t it be nice if you gave me this as a gift? And before they could answer, he ran off to Truth Social and everywhere crowing that he was now getting the plane as a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE,” and said he “would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person, say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was, I thought it was a great gesture,” which certainly heavily pressured the Qataris to “donate” the plane instead of publicly correcting him.
He even claimed the plane was a “reward” from them for some kind of “job well done.”
But, what about the planes at home? Boeing got a contract for two new presidential planes in 2017, and is supposed to deliver them in 2027. Indeed, a ridiculously long time! But building them does take time, in part because workers are supposed to have to have top-secret security clearance to work on the project, though that is a requirement Boeing recently loosened, and in part because they’re such complex aircraft, with communications and defensive systems that make it like a flying Oval Office and reinforced fortress in one.
Retrofitting the new/used Qatari jet will cost at least as much as building a whole new plane, and take about as much time too. Possibly more, because it is bigger and fatter, like a flying pig. But the Defense Department has selected a different, smaller defense contractor than Boeing, L3Harris, to work on the Qatari plane, and Trump thinks that he’s going to somehow get it before the other planes that are already in the process of being built, LOL.
You can have it fast, cheap, or good, pick one!
Is the plane a violation of the Emoluments Clause? Ha ha, what’s that? Scott Bessent says it is more like when France gave the US the Statue of Liberty.
“The French gave us the Statue of Liberty. The British gave us the Resolute Desk. I’m not sure they asked for anything in advance.”
Yes, a fat expensive plane does seem a like a symbol for our nation’s values right now. Bye bye, poor, tired, hungry, weak, etc., you are going to El Salvador or Djibouti, while the president flies off to golf at his new $5.5 billion Qatari beachside golf course!
And, Republicans insist, because it’s not a gift to Trump personally, after his term is over it’ll go to sit in the driveway of his presidential library. Or maybe it’ll belong to the Air Force? Even Marco Rubio doesn’t know.
“It’s not your understanding that the plane ultimately will belong to Trump or to the president’s library?” Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy asked the guy whose job it is to manage and carry out US foreign policy.
“My understanding of it, basically, has been, from the very beginning, that this is a plane that was identified after talking to Boeing about what other planes around the world would fit the bill that are out there, that could be used now,” Rubio said. Shouldn’t the secretary of State understand that you can’t just pick up some plane at the plane store and use it now?
“I'm not involved at that level of it. What I've heard is that that plane will replace Air Force One, which is an Air Force plane.”
Uh, shouldn’t you be involved, though, as US foreign policy guy?
But wherever it ends up going, it will definitely be taxpayers’ problem forever!
It’s all a huge embarrassment for Trump, at least insofar as he has the capacity for shame. A Harvard poll found that 62 percent of Americans think it’s an “ethical concern.” And South African President Cyril Ramaphosa even dragged him about it yesterday.
RAMAPHOSA: I am sorry I don't have a plane to give you.
TRUMP: I wish you did. I'd take it. If your country offered the US Air Force a plane, I would take it.
RAMAPHOSA: OK.
But taking Qatar’s lucre is nothing new. They have been a Trump family sugardaddy for a long time, ever since the Kushners got tight with them.
Flashback to April, 2017, Charles Kushner — new ambassador to France that Cory Booker voted for! — approached the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, cup in hand, asking them to invest in his son’s deeply underwater, cursed building at 666 Fifth Avenue, and they said no. Big mistake!
Just a few weeks later, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates happened to organize a blockade of their smaller neighbor, which Trump claimed was his idea. He took to the Rose Garden, ranting about the nation that until then had been our strategic ally: “The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Qatar has been a longtime supporter of Hamas, which is something Benjamin Netanyahu supported, in hopes that they would be a more agreeable (to him) influence than the Palestinian Authority (or something). Qatar was left to desperately try to reach Trump and make its case via public tweets.
But then Qatar seemed to somehow learn to speak Trump’s love language, and we all know what THAT is: they bailed out Jared Kushner and his money-pit devil building at 666 Fifth Avenue. From your Wonkette in 2017:
[W]e can't say for sure that Jared Kushner upended US policy toward a strategic ally to punish it for giving his family business the stiff-arm. But we can't help but notice that after Kushner's family got $184 million from Qatari-backed Apollo Capital in November 2017, and the Qataris decided not to give the Mueller team allegedly incriminating info on Jared's ties to the UAE, the US posture toward Qatar swung back.
And then the minute Trump left office, Qatar invested a large sum in Jared’s “investment fund” that does not do very much investing.
So, now Trump has worked out his plan for peace between all the gulf states, by way of all of them giving him and his family gifts. But will he mediate the next time Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the UAE get in a disagreement, when they are all giving his family big bribes?
Guess we will find out!
[CNN / NPR / Rolling Stone / WSJ]
Film post: I, Robot
May 22nd, 2025 02:04 pmloganberrybunnyPublic
I, Robot (2004)
First things first here: if you're a fan of Isaac Asimov's robot story of the same name, then don't expect a faithful adaptation here. In 2035, the Three Laws of Robotics exist, there's a rather emotionless US Robotics scientist called Susan Calvin... and that's mostly it. This I, Robot is a plain old sci-fi action flick. Fortunately it's not a bad one, with detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) doing quite well as he investigates the apparent murder of US Robotics' founder by a robot – something that the Three Laws should render impossible. Later we get into familiar territory with both a full-on robot rebellion and Spooner coming to terms with a particular robot apparently displaying emotions. Talking of which, or lack of, Bridget Moynahan makes a watchable Calvin. Interestingly, I think the 21-year-old CGI actually plays in the film's favour: the serried ranks of robots' disconcertingly insectoid movements enhance the sense of strangeness. The overdone motorcycle stunt scenes and the level of Audi product placement, though, are tiresome even by Hollywood blockbuster standards. I, Robot isn't remotely groundbreaking, but in its own genre it's efficient enough and even provides just the occasional moment to provoke thought about the direction our own society was (in 2004) and still is heading. ★★★
I, Robot (2004)
First things first here: if you're a fan of Isaac Asimov's robot story of the same name, then don't expect a faithful adaptation here. In 2035, the Three Laws of Robotics exist, there's a rather emotionless US Robotics scientist called Susan Calvin... and that's mostly it. This I, Robot is a plain old sci-fi action flick. Fortunately it's not a bad one, with detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) doing quite well as he investigates the apparent murder of US Robotics' founder by a robot – something that the Three Laws should render impossible. Later we get into familiar territory with both a full-on robot rebellion and Spooner coming to terms with a particular robot apparently displaying emotions. Talking of which, or lack of, Bridget Moynahan makes a watchable Calvin. Interestingly, I think the 21-year-old CGI actually plays in the film's favour: the serried ranks of robots' disconcertingly insectoid movements enhance the sense of strangeness. The overdone motorcycle stunt scenes and the level of Audi product placement, though, are tiresome even by Hollywood blockbuster standards. I, Robot isn't remotely groundbreaking, but in its own genre it's efficient enough and even provides just the occasional moment to provoke thought about the direction our own society was (in 2004) and still is heading. ★★★
POLL: confusing ass group part 2 - results!
May 22nd, 2025 10:47 pmparadisedinermod posting in paradisedinerWe remain thoroughly confused:
Zerobaseone
Good Night: 5 votes
Insomnia: 6 votes
TXT
New Rules: 6 votes
No Rules: 6 votes
Red Velvet
In My Dreams: 6 votes
Nightmare: 5 votes
Sweet Dreams: 1 vote
This was beautifully inconclusive, congratulations to us all!
Zerobaseone
Good Night: 5 votes
Insomnia: 6 votes
TXT
New Rules: 6 votes
No Rules: 6 votes
Red Velvet
In My Dreams: 6 votes
Nightmare: 5 votes
Sweet Dreams: 1 vote
This was beautifully inconclusive, congratulations to us all!
it will be nice to be home again
May 22nd, 2025 09:20 pmtielanI'm mostly just tired. And the bed is doing my back in. Soft beds do this a lot with me. They need to be just soft enough that I can lie on them, but firm and flat - no dips in the mattress.
I want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)
I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.
I want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)
I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.
The Voter Experience
May 22nd, 2025 11:06 ambruce_schneier_feedTechnology and innovation have transformed every part of society, including our electoral experiences. Campaigns are spending and doing more than at any other time in history. Ever-growing war chests fuel billions of voter contacts every cycle. Campaigns now have better ways of scaling outreach methods and offer volunteers and donors more efficient ways to contribute time and money. Campaign staff have adapted to vast changes in media and social media landscapes, and use data analytics to forecast voter turnout and behavior.
Yet despite these unprecedented investments in mobilizing voters, overall trust in electoral health, democratic institutions, voter satisfaction, and electoral engagement has significantly declined. What might we be missing?
In software development, the concept of user experience (UX) is fundamental to the design of any product or service. It’s a way to think holistically about how a user interacts with technology. It ensures that products and services are built with the users’ actual needs, behaviors, and expectations in mind, as opposed to what developers think users want. UX enables informed decisions based on how the user will interact with the system, leading to improved design, more effective solutions, and increased user satisfaction. Good UX design results in easy, relevant, useful, positive experiences. Bad UX design leads to unhappy users.
This is not how we normally think of elections. Campaigns measure success through short-term outputs—voter contacts, fundraising totals, issue polls, ad impressions—and, ultimately, election results. Rarely do they evaluate how individuals experience this as a singular, messy, democratic process. Each campaign, PAC, nonprofit, and volunteer group may be focused on their own goal, but the voter experiences it all at once. By the time they’re in line to vote, they’ve been hit with a flood of outreach—spammy texts from unfamiliar candidates, organizers with no local ties, clunky voter registration sites, conflicting information, and confusing messages, even from campaigns they support. Political teams can point to data that justifies this barrage, but the effectiveness of voter contact has been steadily declining since 2008. Intuitively, we know this approach has long-term costs. To address this, let’s evaluate the UX of an election cycle from the point of view of the end user, the everyday citizen.
Specifically, how might we define the UX of an election cycle: the voter experience (VX)? A VX lens could help us see the full impact of the electoral cycle from the perspective that matters most: the voters’.
For example, what if we thought about elections in terms of questions like these?
- How do voters experience an election cycle, from start to finish?
- How do voters perceive their interactions with political campaigns?
- What aspects of the election cycle do voters enjoy? What do they dislike? Do citizens currently feel fulfilled by voting?
- If voters “tune out” of politics, what part of the process has made them want to not pay attention?
- What experiences decrease the number of eligible citizens who register and vote?
- Are we able to measure the cumulative impacts of political content interactions over the course of multiple election cycles?
- Can polls or focus groups help researchers learn about longitudinal sentiment from citizens as they experience multiple election cycles?
- If so, what would we want to learn in order to bolster democratic participation and trust in institutions?
Thinking in terms of VX can help answer these questions. Moreover, researching and designing around VX could help identify additional metrics, beyond traditional turnout and engagement numbers, that better reflect the collective impact of campaigning: of all those voter contact and persuasion efforts combined.
This isn’t a radically new idea, and earlier efforts to embed UX design into electoral work yielded promising early benefits. In 2020, a coalition of political tech builders created a Volunteer Experience program. The group held design sprints for political tech tools, such as canvassing apps and phone banking sites. Their goal was to apply UX principles to improve the volunteer user flow, enhance data hygiene, and improve volunteer retention. If a few sprints can improve the phone banking experience, imagine the transformative possibilities of taking this lens to the VX as a whole.
If we want democracy to thrive long-term, we need to think beyond short-term wins and table stakes. This isn’t about replacing grassroots organizing or civic action with digital tools. Rather, it’s about learning from UX research methodology to build lasting, meaningful engagement that involves both technology and community organizing. Often, it is indeed local, on-the-ground organizers who have been sounding the alarm about the long-term effects of prioritizing short-term tactics. A VX approach may provide additional data to bolster their arguments.
Learnings from a VX analysis of election cycles could also guide the design of new programs that not only mobilize voters (to contribute, to campaign for their candidates, and to vote), but also ensure that the entire process of voting, post-election follow-up, and broader civic participation is as accessible, intuitive, and fulfilling as possible. Better voter UX will lead to more politically engaged citizens and higher voter turnout.
VX methodology may help combine real-time citizen feedback with centralized decision-making. Moving beyond election cycles, focusing on the citizen UX could accelerate possibilities for citizens to provide real-time feedback, review the performance of elected officials and government, and receive help-desk-style support with the same level of ease as other everyday “products.” By understanding how people engage with civic life over time, we can better design systems for citizens that strengthen participation, trust, and accountability at every level.
Our hope is that this approach, and the new data and metrics uncovered by it, will support shifts that help restore civic participation and strengthen trust in institutions. With citizens oriented as the central users of our democratic systems, we can build new best practices for fulfilling civic infrastructure that foster a more effective and inclusive democracy.
The time for this is now. Despite hard-fought victories and lessons learned from failures, many people working in politics privately acknowledge a hard truth: our current approach isn’t working. Every two years, people build campaigns, mobilize voters, and drive engagement, but they are held back by what they don’t understand about the long-term impact of their efforts. VX thinking can help solve that.
This essay was written with Hillary Lehr, and originally appeared on the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center’s website.
Plotzing From Outrage Fatigue! Tabs, Thurs., May 22, 2025
May 22nd, 2025 11:02 amwonkette_feed
Hi Wonklets! What’s going on today?
The House was expected to vote on the Big Beautiful Blowjobs For Billionaires Bill at about 6 a.m., did they officially take food out of poor kids’ mouths yet?
Sad news: Representative Gerry Connolly has died at 75. (Washington Post)
Trump is once again EMERGENCY asking the Supreme Court to step in and over mean lower-court judges who won’t let him break the law, this time to stop the release of records of whatever it is DOGE has been doing in the Office of Management and Budget. He’s already EMERGENCY appealed to them to let members of DOGE back into the records of the Social Security Administration (on top of all of his other emergency appeals), and the Court has not made up their mind about that yet. (New York Times archive link)
Doesn’t seem like the administration intends to respect SCOTUS anyway, though: a plane with eight migrants the administration is trying to disappear to war-torn South Sudan, showed up yesterday more than 800 miles away in Djibouti instead. A judge quickly found the government violated his order and asked for a list of names of everyone involved, so he can notify them that criminal contempt may be coming. (New York Times archive link)
Speaking of the wrong African country, how disgusting is Trump? This much: he showed South African Prime Minister Cyril Ramaphosa photos of burned bodies that he claimed were proof of the conspiracy theory that white farmers are being murdered in South Africa, but the photos were actually of murdered black female prisoners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Agence France-Presse)
More SIGNALGATE! The app Mike Waltz was caught using to archive his Signal messages, TeleMessage, got hacked, and now here come caches of leaks! Nothing from the Trump cabinet (yet), but data from more than 60 unique government users: “Some chats did seem to bear on the travel plans of senior government officials. One Signal group, ‘POTUS | ROME-VATICAN | PRESS GC,’ appeared to pertain to the logistics of an event at the Vatican. Another appeared to discuss U.S. officials' trip to Jordan.” ALL CLEAR ON OPSEC! (Reuters)
Sure didn’t take long for a judge to call (acting) US Attorney Alina Habba an idiot! At a hearing to drop charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the judge lectured the lawyer from her office: “The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrying misstep by your office. An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence. […] Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas.” Baraka, on a hot mic after the hearing’s conclusion: “Jesus, he tore these people a new asshole. Good grief.” (New Jersey Globe)
And in another, virtual, hearing for Rep. Monica McIver, she was “released on her own recognizance” for two felony assault charges, each with a maximum of eight years in prison. She is due back in court June 11. (Politico)
Because Sec. Def. Boozehound cannot think of a any bigger priority for the military than tormenting its own people who are trying to serve this country, military branches have now issued guidance to go into transgender soldiers’ records and change them to “reflect biological sex for all individuals.” (Reuters/ guidance)
Grift Department:
Holiday in Hanoi? The Trumps sure do love pressing foreign governments for deals that tuck a little sugar in the family g-string! Eric, the ugliest one, went to Hanoi yesterday to break ground on a $1.5 billion Trump-branded golf club in Vietnam, following President Daddy threatening Vietnam with 46 percent tariffs and then changing his mind about it. Eric is also pressuring the Vietnamese government to let them build a skyscraper. (NBC)
Former reality star/Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sold stocks two days before Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs. Surely a coincidence! Remember when Martha Stewart went to prison for that shit, after James Comey relentlessly pursued her? (ProPublica)
Sec. Def. Hoochbreath also swanned in the Oval Office with Trump to fantasize about building a $175 Billion Big Beautiful Golden Defense Dome, which is surely will not be just a massive kickback to SpaceX, Palantir Technologies and Matt Gaetz’s brother-in-law Palmer Luckey’s company Anduril Industries. (Axios)
... did you catch that guy Luckey on 60 Minutes on Sunday? New billionaire Trump-supporting libertarian weirdo just dropped! This one’s got a mullet, wonky soul patch, and lots of Boogaloo-boy Hawaiian shirts.
Elon Musk’s motherboard overheated when a journalist pointed out that his own DOGE savings numbers don’t add up to the trillions he claims they do: “if you add that up, it’s not gonna get to $2 trillion over the lifetime of DOGE.” After an awkward pause, Elon snapped at her like a totally normal human being who has not spent his past few weeks in a k-hole, trying to train an AI bot to regurgitate white nationalist theories: “I mean, I feel you’re somewhat trapped in the NPC dialogue tree of a traditional journalist. So it’s difficult when I’m conversing with someone who’s trapped in the dialogue tree of a conventional journalist because it’s like talking to a computer.” (Daily Beast /TikTok)
Happier news!:
England is rolling out the world’s first gonorrhoea vaccine, which will hopefully work for gonorrhea too. (Guardian)
Albuquerque is funding a basic income project by taxing recreational cannabis. (Business Insider)
New Randy Rainbow!
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The plea: defeating smallpox
May 22nd, 2025 10:01 amaeon_feed
- by Aeon Video
Out of the fog
May 22nd, 2025 10:00 amaeon_feed
- by Gianluca Didino
Community Thursday
May 22nd, 2025 06:47 amvriddyCommunity Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.
Commented oncommon_nature, and more Vigilantes anime chit-chat on bnha_fans!
Commented on
common_nature, and more Vigilantes anime chit-chat on bnha_fans!What I'm Reading: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025)
May 21st, 2025 01:58 pmdelphi✓ kingstoken's 2025 Book Bingo: Over 300 Pages
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams is a 2025 tell-all about the author's time as Facebook's Director of Global Public Policy in the 2010s. The book focuses on the ill-preparedness of Facebook executives to navigate the geopolitical situations they inserted themselves into in their obsession with perpetual expansion, including their role in the Rohingya genocide, as well as the general bizarre work environment and the sexual harassment that the author experienced.
Wynn-Williams comes off as a deeply careless person herself, albeit one buoyed along on a slightly different type of inflated self-importance than her former colleagues. There's a lot of what feels like completely unreflected-upon self-incrimination in the book that lends credibility to her stories. The seams show clearly enough where she's edited her interactions with others (usually to give herself the winning last word in conversations that clearly would have continued) that I'm inclined to believe the bulk of what's there, even if I don't buy the characterization of her responses or her assessment of her own moral fibre.
When this book first came out, I wondered if reading it was going to feel redundant alongside all the media coverage it was surely going to get. But the gag order Facebook imposed on the author banning her from promoting the book—combined with the avalanche of other news in early 2025 about tech billionaires dismantling democracy—seemed to result in fewer articles about the content crossing my path than I would have expected. For that reason, I'm glad I took the time to read it.
Also, it's worth noting that in my searching, I found many results on other search engines that didn't turn up on Google, even when they involved sources that Google usually indexes.
( An Excerpt )
kingstoken's 2025 Book Bingo: Over 300 PagesCareless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams is a 2025 tell-all about the author's time as Facebook's Director of Global Public Policy in the 2010s. The book focuses on the ill-preparedness of Facebook executives to navigate the geopolitical situations they inserted themselves into in their obsession with perpetual expansion, including their role in the Rohingya genocide, as well as the general bizarre work environment and the sexual harassment that the author experienced.
Wynn-Williams comes off as a deeply careless person herself, albeit one buoyed along on a slightly different type of inflated self-importance than her former colleagues. There's a lot of what feels like completely unreflected-upon self-incrimination in the book that lends credibility to her stories. The seams show clearly enough where she's edited her interactions with others (usually to give herself the winning last word in conversations that clearly would have continued) that I'm inclined to believe the bulk of what's there, even if I don't buy the characterization of her responses or her assessment of her own moral fibre.
When this book first came out, I wondered if reading it was going to feel redundant alongside all the media coverage it was surely going to get. But the gag order Facebook imposed on the author banning her from promoting the book—combined with the avalanche of other news in early 2025 about tech billionaires dismantling democracy—seemed to result in fewer articles about the content crossing my path than I would have expected. For that reason, I'm glad I took the time to read it.
Also, it's worth noting that in my searching, I found many results on other search engines that didn't turn up on Google, even when they involved sources that Google usually indexes.
( An Excerpt )
Rec Lists for SNK, XMFC, The Untamed
May 22nd, 2025 12:36 pmunrelaxing posting in recthethingOver time I've made a few rec lists for friends and never thought to share them with the wider fandom, so I thought it would be nice to do that and post it here!
An SNK (specifically Levi/Eren) rec list from Aug. 13 2022 with 40 recs, split into CANON, CANON DIVERGENCE, REINCARNATION and ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.
Example recs:
Grown To Be Wild by graves | T, 4k | Hanahaki. Eren wakes hours before dawn with his hands tearing at his throat.
Pinecones by ShamelesslyPoetic | G, 5k | While Eren is wandering in the forest, he meets a short, dark, handsome soldier and immediately falls in love.
10 X-Men: First Class (Charles/Erik) fics under 1000 kudos, posted on Apr. 30, 2022 (some of these stories have since gotten 1k kudos).
Example recs:
Kiss and Tell by pearl_o | T, 2k | It's been a long time since Charles and Raven were able to sit down and really talk to each other, but the awkwardness of the occasion is lessened by a lot of red wine and comparing notes on something they have in common - namely, what Erik was like in bed.
Kintsugi by xtinethepirate | E, 49k | When Charles had told Hank there would be a time when they would all be together again, he hadn't meant immediately. In Charles’s mind, that indeterminate time was something more along the lines of “in a few months or a year, once Erik realized what a colossal ass he had been and Charles had stopped wanting to punch him again.”
An MDZS Fic Sampler with 16 fics, with a subsection of fics specifically where the Wen Remnants survive, posted on Apr. 22, 2020.
Example recs:
Seldom All They Seem by fahye | 24k, E | He bows to Wei Wuxian, sword in hand, sleeves falling properly. Wei Wuxian bows in return, and the sect leaders begin the opening courtesies, and for all of ten minutes Lan Wangji is under the impression that he is betrothed to a boy who is perfectly normal and acceptable apart from an unfortunate tendency to fidget with his clothes. That impression does not last.
Operation Old Men by chiharu | 17k | An ill-fated parent teacher conference reunites Jin Ling's wayward uncle with Sizhui's father. AKA: A matchmaking disaster as told by Jin Ling, Sizhui, and Jingyi.
An SNK (specifically Levi/Eren) rec list from Aug. 13 2022 with 40 recs, split into CANON, CANON DIVERGENCE, REINCARNATION and ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.
Example recs:
Grown To Be Wild by graves | T, 4k | Hanahaki. Eren wakes hours before dawn with his hands tearing at his throat.
Pinecones by ShamelesslyPoetic | G, 5k | While Eren is wandering in the forest, he meets a short, dark, handsome soldier and immediately falls in love.
10 X-Men: First Class (Charles/Erik) fics under 1000 kudos, posted on Apr. 30, 2022 (some of these stories have since gotten 1k kudos).
Example recs:
Kiss and Tell by pearl_o | T, 2k | It's been a long time since Charles and Raven were able to sit down and really talk to each other, but the awkwardness of the occasion is lessened by a lot of red wine and comparing notes on something they have in common - namely, what Erik was like in bed.
Kintsugi by xtinethepirate | E, 49k | When Charles had told Hank there would be a time when they would all be together again, he hadn't meant immediately. In Charles’s mind, that indeterminate time was something more along the lines of “in a few months or a year, once Erik realized what a colossal ass he had been and Charles had stopped wanting to punch him again.”
An MDZS Fic Sampler with 16 fics, with a subsection of fics specifically where the Wen Remnants survive, posted on Apr. 22, 2020.
Example recs:
Seldom All They Seem by fahye | 24k, E | He bows to Wei Wuxian, sword in hand, sleeves falling properly. Wei Wuxian bows in return, and the sect leaders begin the opening courtesies, and for all of ten minutes Lan Wangji is under the impression that he is betrothed to a boy who is perfectly normal and acceptable apart from an unfortunate tendency to fidget with his clothes. That impression does not last.
Operation Old Men by chiharu | 17k | An ill-fated parent teacher conference reunites Jin Ling's wayward uncle with Sizhui's father. AKA: A matchmaking disaster as told by Jin Ling, Sizhui, and Jingyi.
Queer Comics and Cartoon Trivia?
May 21st, 2025 09:42 pmgot_quietA fun way of measuring my business/stress levels is how often I fail to keep energy at under 120 in Nu:Carni or miss a guild point or two lol. Usually I hit 35 points with ease but I'm already 4 down this week.
A little while ago I agreed to help a friend man a table at a local comic event and do some trivia. We're just going to ask a bunch of random questions about cartoons and comics, but they have to have something to do with LGBT+ stuff, because that is what the org I'm helping table for is about.
Well, the energy I might have had to collect these trivia bits has been redirected to the house hunt, so now I'm trying to make sure I at least have a few bits ready. There is also a bank of trivia from previous events, but they are all kind of western live action from 30 years ago type items, and I want a refresher.
So does anyone know some good places for such trivia sources? Or do they have some favorite trivia that they want to throw in that a crowd a comics convention might appreciate? I'm going to dig around the LGBT Themes in Comics wiki but also want stuff like trivia from very gay properties, like stuff about Nimona, Check Please, "Who was the name of the guy Shiro Married at the end of Voltron." (lolololol) etc.
A little while ago I agreed to help a friend man a table at a local comic event and do some trivia. We're just going to ask a bunch of random questions about cartoons and comics, but they have to have something to do with LGBT+ stuff, because that is what the org I'm helping table for is about.
Well, the energy I might have had to collect these trivia bits has been redirected to the house hunt, so now I'm trying to make sure I at least have a few bits ready. There is also a bank of trivia from previous events, but they are all kind of western live action from 30 years ago type items, and I want a refresher.
So does anyone know some good places for such trivia sources? Or do they have some favorite trivia that they want to throw in that a crowd a comics convention might appreciate? I'm going to dig around the LGBT Themes in Comics wiki but also want stuff like trivia from very gay properties, like stuff about Nimona, Check Please, "Who was the name of the guy Shiro Married at the end of Voltron." (lolololol) etc.
The good new is
May 21st, 2025 10:13 pmcornerofmadnessIt's not covid or flu. The bad news is it's viral so here are some heavy cough suppressants, bye bye. I got a lot worse around 5 this morning so I went to the urgent care and then on to the hotel.
She was like you want to wait a half hour for the verdict on covid/flu? Yes because you want to give me tamiflu/whatever that drug is for covid if it is. I'm going downtown Pittsburgh which is a nightmare (even though it's like 10 miles away it takes a halfhour to get there because you have 4 lanes of traffic going thru a 2 lane tunnel that spits you out on a 4 lane bridge with less than 500 yards to make your choice and god help you if you don't know where your exit is because Pittsburgh is on a triangle of land and you WILL have to go around for the next 20 minutes trying to get to the damn place you missed.
While I was in the urgent care a huge storm popped up, worse than I thought. even though I'm parked like 10 yards away I'm DRENCHED by the time I get to the car to the point my jeans look fresh from the washer wet. I go for an early dinner at my favorite chinese place while CVS fills my script.
Get to CVS it's a mad house. The storm knocked out the system and my stuff isn't ready.
By the time I get to Pittsburgh the flooding has started. I can't find my keys in my purse to give to the valet (he gave up and had me leave them in the car) and I scored the BEST room. I'm on the top floor with a view of the Point which is a Pittsburgh highlight.
I said I wasn't going to the mixer but I wanted my stuff for the convention tonight so I can plan for tomorrow (I think I'll be skipping some just so I can be fresh for MY presentation and I know it'll be a lot for me) I had to go into the mixer to get it and two gins and tonic jumped down my throat. Don't know how that happened.
At least my throat is less sore but my cough is making my hernia hurt.
Scroll to the end for pictures but first books!
What I Just Finished Reading:
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik.
We Can Never Leave - H.E. Edgmon
the flipside, a graphic novel
What I am Currently Reading:
Of Manners and Murder - historical mystery
Last Dance Before Dawn by Katharine Schellman which is the final book in the series...that I never read but didn't know that when I requested it on Netgalley so far so good set in a speakeasy
What I Plan to Read Next:
Under This Red Rock - need to finish this
Have the view from 24 floors up
the point
Da liberty bridge (that I was talking about)
When the sun came out just at sundown
She was like you want to wait a half hour for the verdict on covid/flu? Yes because you want to give me tamiflu/whatever that drug is for covid if it is. I'm going downtown Pittsburgh which is a nightmare (even though it's like 10 miles away it takes a halfhour to get there because you have 4 lanes of traffic going thru a 2 lane tunnel that spits you out on a 4 lane bridge with less than 500 yards to make your choice and god help you if you don't know where your exit is because Pittsburgh is on a triangle of land and you WILL have to go around for the next 20 minutes trying to get to the damn place you missed.
While I was in the urgent care a huge storm popped up, worse than I thought. even though I'm parked like 10 yards away I'm DRENCHED by the time I get to the car to the point my jeans look fresh from the washer wet. I go for an early dinner at my favorite chinese place while CVS fills my script.
Get to CVS it's a mad house. The storm knocked out the system and my stuff isn't ready.
By the time I get to Pittsburgh the flooding has started. I can't find my keys in my purse to give to the valet (he gave up and had me leave them in the car) and I scored the BEST room. I'm on the top floor with a view of the Point which is a Pittsburgh highlight.
I said I wasn't going to the mixer but I wanted my stuff for the convention tonight so I can plan for tomorrow (I think I'll be skipping some just so I can be fresh for MY presentation and I know it'll be a lot for me) I had to go into the mixer to get it and two gins and tonic jumped down my throat. Don't know how that happened.
At least my throat is less sore but my cough is making my hernia hurt.
Scroll to the end for pictures but first books!
What I Just Finished Reading:
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik.
We Can Never Leave - H.E. Edgmon
the flipside, a graphic novel
What I am Currently Reading:
Of Manners and Murder - historical mystery
Last Dance Before Dawn by Katharine Schellman which is the final book in the series...that I never read but didn't know that when I requested it on Netgalley so far so good set in a speakeasy
What I Plan to Read Next:
Under This Red Rock - need to finish this
Have the view from 24 floors up
the point Da liberty bridge (that I was talking about) When the sun came out just at sundown
(no subject)
May 21st, 2025 09:19 pmflemmingsBy force of will I got the biodegradable garbage out in its green bin but nothing else, because it rained all day and I am not up for getting soaked more than twice. Once was physio and twice was nama gomi, and though I know garden waste bags don't disintegrate in the wet like other paper, my bag can stay dry in the bunker for another fortnight. By which time there may be two or even three of them.
It's not unheard of to have the heat on in May, it just hasn't been necessary in recent years. But I bumped the thermostat up this evening because 10C/50F on a day when the sun didn't shine but the wind did blow is quite different from 10C when it does and doesn't.
Worrying about not hearing anything re: my dental plan renewal, I went back online and did it again, this time being sure to give my address, which Service Canada surely has. This time I read the note about You will not receive an email in response to this (good, that's why I didn't get one) we will mail you your registration. Well no, you won't, because we're going to have another mail strike oh joy. Oh well. I trust I'll be covered come July one way or the other.
It's not unheard of to have the heat on in May, it just hasn't been necessary in recent years. But I bumped the thermostat up this evening because 10C/50F on a day when the sun didn't shine but the wind did blow is quite different from 10C when it does and doesn't.
Worrying about not hearing anything re: my dental plan renewal, I went back online and did it again, this time being sure to give my address, which Service Canada surely has. This time I read the note about You will not receive an email in response to this (good, that's why I didn't get one) we will mail you your registration. Well no, you won't, because we're going to have another mail strike oh joy. Oh well. I trust I'll be covered come July one way or the other.
ThunderBlade X12
May 21st, 2025 06:14 pmlovelyangel |
Yesterday, when I opened the box containing my new OWC ThunderBlade X12 24TB RAID SSD unit, I was surprised to see a very durable carrying case. I’ve never received an external data storage drive in its own case before. I guess this makes sense, though, as major use cases for this unit include video capture and editing, and this unit is small enough to take into the field. I have to say, I was impressed.
( Setting Up a New RAID Below This Cut )
New Journal for Personal Life
May 21st, 2025 08:32 pmtoothpastepancake I have been thinking of ways to feel more comfortable, and I've decided to move more in-depth talk of my personal life to alienteeth . Feel free to subscribe and I'll grant you access. I'll still be doing some personal talk here though.
alienteeth . Feel free to subscribe and I'll grant you access. I'll still be doing some personal talk here though.LB is Moving! Take Our Stuff
May 21st, 2025 08:08 pmlb_leeMori: welp, our new shrink got ratfucked by Trump, even though we only got him last month, which means we have to go hunting a new one and start the whole training process over again while moving. This means we are eager to clear our plate of other distractions ASAP!
First: Wanna help us move? We will be moving on the last weekend of May--most likely Sunday, June 1 because our other three roomies move on May 31 and we don't want the front door to become a clown car. Are you available? Are you willing to lug boxes and get treated to dinner afterward? We would appreciate you (especially if you have wheels)!
Second: FREE STUFF GIVEAWAY (long as you cover shipping)! We have a couple books free to good homes:
Okay, back to trawling my health insurance website for potential new shrinks!
First: Wanna help us move? We will be moving on the last weekend of May--most likely Sunday, June 1 because our other three roomies move on May 31 and we don't want the front door to become a clown car. Are you available? Are you willing to lug boxes and get treated to dinner afterward? We would appreciate you (especially if you have wheels)!
Second: FREE STUFF GIVEAWAY (long as you cover shipping)! We have a couple books free to good homes:
- Sweet Abilene, a M/FTM porno comic by the great E.K. Weaver. Sweet Abilene is a spin-off of their webcomic Shot and Chaser, so you can get a good idea of the art and main characters! It's great! We want other people to love it!
- Festival of the Bones II: What Is Remembered Lives, an anthology of ancestor worship stories and poems edited by the Writers Egbe of Ile Orunmila Oshun. We fed it through the bookscanner, which means this book can now be liberated! (The PDF will be uploaded once we get it OCRed.)
- this page of MPD for You and Me (original)
- two spreads of the queer trans multi wedding in LB Goes To Alaska (prints made to look like the originals in a sketchbook, which include marginalia and green colored pencil underdrawing that are erased from the comic). You can see a photo of one of them here. One spread shows Zyfron and Mystics doing their wedding smooch and first dance; the other shows the wedding dance afterward. These spreads inspired the name of the art show they were framed for, "Love is for all of us." If you need high-res images of the pages in question, just ask!
Okay, back to trawling my health insurance website for potential new shrinks!
This time next week
May 21st, 2025 05:06 pmsusandennisThis time next week, I'll have proper shades in the living room. I'm quite excited about that.
Erica in the fitness center was kind enough to send me a note that the part they need to fix the pool has not come in yet so it was still very cold. I sent a note to Steve - play or no play?
The Food and beverage meeting today was ok. I learned a few new things and that's why I go. There was a lot of people at today's meeting. Linda, who plays volleyball, was there. She said she swam today and the pool was still cold. Ok for swimming but she was also in a suit with full arm and leg coverage. She said she didn't think it was warm enough for volleyball. Just then I got a note from Steve and we all decided to just bag tomorrow's game and hope for Saturday. I sent a note out to everyone else.
Weird week with no volleyball.
A woman here, Dixie, makes very elaborate knitted college mascot dolls and sells them. I don't know all the details but her work is excellent. Her current project needs hair like my dolls so she came over this afternoon to find out how I did it. We had a lovely chat. She's really nice and knows her knittin' and didn't over stay her welcome. It was just nice. She's off now to find the perfect sweater for her doll's hair.
Now I'm watching the Mets Sox game which just took a turn to the even more interesting - snowman half done.
Erica in the fitness center was kind enough to send me a note that the part they need to fix the pool has not come in yet so it was still very cold. I sent a note to Steve - play or no play?
The Food and beverage meeting today was ok. I learned a few new things and that's why I go. There was a lot of people at today's meeting. Linda, who plays volleyball, was there. She said she swam today and the pool was still cold. Ok for swimming but she was also in a suit with full arm and leg coverage. She said she didn't think it was warm enough for volleyball. Just then I got a note from Steve and we all decided to just bag tomorrow's game and hope for Saturday. I sent a note out to everyone else.
Weird week with no volleyball.
A woman here, Dixie, makes very elaborate knitted college mascot dolls and sells them. I don't know all the details but her work is excellent. Her current project needs hair like my dolls so she came over this afternoon to find out how I did it. We had a lovely chat. She's really nice and knows her knittin' and didn't over stay her welcome. It was just nice. She's off now to find the perfect sweater for her doll's hair.
Now I'm watching the Mets Sox game which just took a turn to the even more interesting - snowman half done.
L&O season 2: Episode 10
May 21st, 2025 07:24 pmsabotabbyThe finale was...good, actually? Again, grading on a curve. It is still a bad show. But it's one of those bad shows where you get the sense that there is someone in the writers' room doing their best and sneaking all kinds of fun content in (see also: Archie singing IWW songs in Riverdale).
I had to check Reddit to see which case this was based on—it takes most of the episode to get to it. A seemingly unremarkable middle-aged travel agent drops dead in his driveway while his wife is out for a jog. It looks like a heart attack, but a cop in 44 Division suggests to Holness that she might want to get "her best" on it. Unfortunately the best that Toronto Police Services—sorry, TPD on the show for some reason—have are Graff and Bateman.
( spoilers )
And that's a wrap. I guess I'll have to find some good show to watch now.
I had to check Reddit to see which case this was based on—it takes most of the episode to get to it. A seemingly unremarkable middle-aged travel agent drops dead in his driveway while his wife is out for a jog. It looks like a heart attack, but a cop in 44 Division suggests to Holness that she might want to get "her best" on it. Unfortunately the best that Toronto Police Services—sorry, TPD on the show for some reason—have are Graff and Bateman.
( spoilers )
And that's a wrap. I guess I'll have to find some good show to watch now.
there's a good chance he hit it further
May 21st, 2025 07:32 pmmusesfoolToday was chilly and rainy - it was hard to get out of bed, were I was so cozy and warm. Part of me was like, is it May 21st or March 21st? I like it being cooler at night, but I'm so tired of all the rain.
I was supposed to go into the office yesterday, but my meeting got moved to tomorrow on Zoom, so I didn't have to go in. Luckily, my boss understands that I'm much more productive at home, and doesn't demand my presence more than once a month or so (if that). It's just been stupidly busy with the search committee stuff, though she and I are getting ourselves through it by clinging to the idea that once the search firm is on board, there will be significantly less of that work on our plates. *fingers crossed*
Meanwhile, I read another book:
What I've just finished: Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano, the second book in the series. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't think too hard about any of it - just keep it light and breezy - because otherwise it's very hard to believe some of the things the characters choose to do.
What I'm reading now/next: Probably the next book in the series, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, since I don't want to lose momentum (okay, I did lose momentum between books 1 and 2 - I had 2 open in a tab for weeks before I actually settled into reading it; sometimes all I want is Batfamily, which is still my main interest in fic-reading these days, for whatever reason).
*
I was supposed to go into the office yesterday, but my meeting got moved to tomorrow on Zoom, so I didn't have to go in. Luckily, my boss understands that I'm much more productive at home, and doesn't demand my presence more than once a month or so (if that). It's just been stupidly busy with the search committee stuff, though she and I are getting ourselves through it by clinging to the idea that once the search firm is on board, there will be significantly less of that work on our plates. *fingers crossed*
Meanwhile, I read another book:
What I've just finished: Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano, the second book in the series. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't think too hard about any of it - just keep it light and breezy - because otherwise it's very hard to believe some of the things the characters choose to do.
What I'm reading now/next: Probably the next book in the series, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, since I don't want to lose momentum (okay, I did lose momentum between books 1 and 2 - I had 2 open in a tab for weeks before I actually settled into reading it; sometimes all I want is Batfamily, which is still my main interest in fic-reading these days, for whatever reason).
*
Westercon Bid Update
May 21st, 2025 04:03 pmkevin_standleeI updated the Santa Clara in 2027 Westercon Bid announcement post to include links to the filing documents from SPSF's bid.
This is the first time since 2019 (when there were two bids on the ballot at the Layton Westercon/NASFiC) that there have been any bids listed on the ballot. There was a double postponement, followed by a cancellation, Tonopah, another cancellation (both of which meant that year's Westercon happened at Loscon), then a couple of years with Direct Awards by the Business Meeting, then at Salt Lake City we had a filed write-in bid. This year finally breaks that string, even though it did take Kayla realizing that she and the SPSF folks were talking past each other and got things straightened out.
This is the first time since 2019 (when there were two bids on the ballot at the Layton Westercon/NASFiC) that there have been any bids listed on the ballot. There was a double postponement, followed by a cancellation, Tonopah, another cancellation (both of which meant that year's Westercon happened at Loscon), then a couple of years with Direct Awards by the Business Meeting, then at Salt Lake City we had a filed write-in bid. This year finally breaks that string, even though it did take Kayla realizing that she and the SPSF folks were talking past each other and got things straightened out.
In less than seven seconds flat
May 21st, 2025 11:41 pmloganberrybunnyPublic
110/365: Old Kidderminster Fire Station
Click for a larger, sharper image
Nothing much to report from today, other than that I hope soon to post a film review, something I apparently haven't done since February! Today's photo comes from the thrilling metropolis that is Kidderminster. So good they named it once. This is the old fire station that was replaced in 2020 by the big hub that also spelled the end of Bewdley's fire station (see yesterday's 365 pic). By the time this 1929 station was finally decommissioned it was over 90 years old and so very cramped for modern fire engines. The building itself won't last much longer, as the site is slated to be redeveloped, I think for flats.
110/365: Old Kidderminster Fire Station
Click for a larger, sharper image
Nothing much to report from today, other than that I hope soon to post a film review, something I apparently haven't done since February! Today's photo comes from the thrilling metropolis that is Kidderminster. So good they named it once. This is the old fire station that was replaced in 2020 by the big hub that also spelled the end of Bewdley's fire station (see yesterday's 365 pic). By the time this 1929 station was finally decommissioned it was over 90 years old and so very cramped for modern fire engines. The building itself won't last much longer, as the site is slated to be redeveloped, I think for flats.
Trump Thinks Of Nothing But Imaginary 'White Genocide' All Day
May 21st, 2025 08:27 pmwonkette_feed
Donald Trump did another of his little “Let’s ambush a foreign country’s leader” shitshows today, welcoming South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Oval Office so he could spring a bunch of lies about the nonexistent “genocide” of white farmers in South Africa.
The meeting began cordially enough, with Ramaphosa somehow keeping a straight face as he flattered Trump about his business acumen and the prospects for trade between the two countries. Ramaphosa even brought a long a contingent of great South African golfers to try to impress Trump. He should have known better, honestly. Things quickly went south — past the Cape of Good Hope, even — when a reporter asked what it would take for Trump to be convinced that there isn’t any “white genocide” in South Africa.
Ramaphosa tried explaining that Trump would only need to listen to the actual South African government officials — and the white golfers, too — to understand that he’s mistaken, but Trump had an ambush set up. Claiming that he had lots of “documentaries” to support the bullshit genocide claim, Trump asked for the lights to be dimmed so Trump could share a clip of undated videos showing Black South African politicians who aren’t part of the government saying terrible things about driving white farmers off their lands. Another clip showed someone singing the radical song “Kill the Boer,” which is actually banned in South Africa.
As the New York Times explains,
The video played in the Oval Office meeting featured the utterances and slogans of Julius Malema, a firebrand opposition politician who has made land expropriation without compensation his campaign message. Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, was expelled from the African National Congress over a decade ago, and the ANC distanced itself years ago from the chant he cites, “Kill the Boer.”
Well hey, Malema is Black and from South Africa, so clearly he and Ramaphosa agree on everything.
That was followed by what Trump claimed was video showing over a thousand “burial sites” in South Africa, with aerial footage of a long procession of vehicles moving in one lane of traffic between rows of white crosses. Trump lied that each cross marked the grave of a white farmer or murdered family member.
Prior to this excerpt, Trump claimed that the video showed
“burial sites, over a thousand, of white farmers, and those cars are lined up to show love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things that you see is a cross, and there’s approximately a thousand of ‘em, they’re all white farmers, the family of white farmers, and those cars aren’t driving, they’re stopped to pay respects to their family who were killed. […] Both sides of the road you have crosses.”
Trump didn’t bother offering any details about where the video came from, because look right there, crosses and cars, those are graves. Ramaphosa said, “I’d like to know where that is, because this, I’ve never seen,” and Trump replied, as if he were explaining to a complete fool, “It’s in South Africa,” settling the question once and for all.
We haven’t seen any specific debunking that’s identified the real source of the video — give it a day or two, by which time the 1,000 graves will be unassailable rightwing canon anyway — but it certainly looks similar to some video we’ve seen of protests in which highways were blockaded in 2017 to protest killings at farms, at which time about 71 farmers had died. Not 1,000, then or since. Since the killings were part of a rural robbery and murder wave, one academic told Al Jazeera that some 30 percent of those murdered were Black farm workers.
This is where we also point out that The Source Of All Knowledge puts the total of all farm murders in South Africa (Black and white victims) at 806, from 2010 through August 2023, although Afrikaner groups insist the numbers must be higher. In any case, nobody has ever claimed that the bodies are all buried in that one place, wherever that video is from.
UPDATE: I found the source of the video. It was a protest in response to the murder of a farm couple, Glen and Vida Rafferty, who were killed during a botched robbery of their farm in 2020. Nothing I can find suggests that they were targeted for being white; the robbers broke into their home to get at the safe, couldn’t open it, and waited for them to return home. After ambushing and shooting them, the murderers stole their car and some home items. Horrible, but not anything at all close to what Trump said about the video. (Video’s music is meant to be dramatic, but ick.)
Fortunately Trump found an American journalist to blow up at, so that made it all better. After the video ended, NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked a question about Trump’s formal acceptance of the Qatari castoff 747, giving Trump a chance to go nuclear, because how dare you interrupt Trump’s solemn white genocide propaganda moment?
TRUMP: What are you talking about? You know, what are you talking about? You know, you're oughta get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatar jet?
They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet, OK? And it’s a great thing. We’re talking about a lot of other things. Just NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw.
You know, you’re a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough.
But for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave $5.1 trillion investment in addition to the jet. [LOLOL 5.1 TRILLION? Fuck off. -Ed.] You oughta go back to your studio at NBC, because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they oughta be investigated. They are so terrible, the way you run that network. And you’re a disgrace. No more questions from you!
Seriously. Trump wanted to have a simple, dignified shaming of a foreign leader over dishonest propaganda lies, and Alexander ruined it. But soon enough, Trump was right back to muttering “death, death, death” and perseverating about decapitated farmers, so he was in his happy place again.
Also, Ramaphosa did manage to get his own little dig in at one point when he pretended to apologize for not having his own plane to give Trump, and Trump didn’t seem to notice it was a joke.
RAMAPHOSA: I am sorry I don't have a plane to give you
TRUMP: I wish you did. I'd take it. If your country offered the US Air Force a plane, I would take it
RAMAPHOSA: Okay
The end.
OPEN THREAD.
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proposed restrictions on covid vaccines
May 21st, 2025 05:07 pmredbirdThe clowns running the FDA have proposed restricting access to covid vaccines, to people over 65 or who have certain medical conditions. There's a public docket for comments on the proposal.
Your Local Epidemiologist has a good post about the proposal, including that the people suggesting this know that nobody is going to do the placebo-controlled tests of new boosters they want to require.
Possible talking points include:
Families and caregivers wouldn't be eligible for the vaccine, even if they share a household, unlike the current UK recommendations.
Doctors, dentists, and other medical staff wouldn't be eligible either.
My own comment included that the reason I'd still be eligible for the vaccine is a lung problem caused by covid.
(cross-posting fromthisfinecrew)
Your Local Epidemiologist has a good post about the proposal, including that the people suggesting this know that nobody is going to do the placebo-controlled tests of new boosters they want to require.
Possible talking points include:
Families and caregivers wouldn't be eligible for the vaccine, even if they share a household, unlike the current UK recommendations.
Doctors, dentists, and other medical staff wouldn't be eligible either.
My own comment included that the reason I'd still be eligible for the vaccine is a lung problem caused by covid.
(cross-posting from
thisfinecrew)Three makes a genre?
May 21st, 2025 10:43 pmdhampyresaWebtoon's Dr. Kim of London is about a modern-day Korean surgeon being reincarnated in 19th century England and having to deal with lack of sanitation and public amputations and other such barbaries. This puts it in the same third-time's-the-genre as the manga Jin (modern day Japanese surgeon in 19th century Japan) and the K-drama Faith The Great Doctor (modern day Korean surgeon in 14th century Korea).
I love me a good "let's science the shit out of this" story and both it and its medical-historical subgenre need names. Any ideas?
I love me a good "let's science the shit out of this" story and both it and its medical-historical subgenre need names. Any ideas?
52/114-115-116: Scratch That
May 21st, 2025 01:22 pmrejectomorphI just ate spicy ramen for breakfast, and just realized that I've lost track of two or three days again. While there's little chance that anything of great importance vanished with the memory of them, I have the feeling I might have enjoyed bits of them here and there, and it's sad that I can't reminisce about them now. But then there was undoubtedly also some utter crap I'm just as well off not to remember. It's a timely reminder that inside very silver lining there's a big, dark cloud.
No literal clouds today though. The rest of this month is mostly sunny and hot, and the last two days are expected to have triple digit highs. One of those will have a nocturnal low of seventy, though all the others will get down into the sixties. The one is just an unwelcome harbinger of the hell that awaits us this summer. One of the hells, as I'm sure there will be others. Today's small bit of hell is that my feet have decided to start itching like mad, and my stiff joints make scratching problematic. I'm going to go soak them (the feet) for a while, to see if that can help. I'm not really hopeful.
No literal clouds today though. The rest of this month is mostly sunny and hot, and the last two days are expected to have triple digit highs. One of those will have a nocturnal low of seventy, though all the others will get down into the sixties. The one is just an unwelcome harbinger of the hell that awaits us this summer. One of the hells, as I'm sure there will be others. Today's small bit of hell is that my feet have decided to start itching like mad, and my stiff joints make scratching problematic. I'm going to go soak them (the feet) for a while, to see if that can help. I'm not really hopeful.
Things I have been doing in the past month & a half
May 21st, 2025 09:20 pmhunningham- Much campaigning for 1 May election
- Father-in-law came to stay a week
- Day off to go see my sister
- Day off to visit with old school friend
- More in-laws came to stay
- Civil partnership
- Went to stay with my mother for a week
- Went camping
- Bathroom was renovated and no one could have a shower for 2 weeks
- And my work carried on in the background
Nothing major, life-threatening, or horrible, but it has felt like a lot. All my cherished little routines have been disrupted, and I have been tired and cranky.
The cat has also tired & cranky - his water-bowl has been moved, his main person (myself) has been missing, the workmen were loud and the floors covered in plastic sheeting.
But nowish that we're both getting ourselves back together. Here is a journal post, Friday I will restart crossfit. The cat's waterbowl is back in the bathroom, and he is once again sitting on the bookshelf while I work.
I do need routines.
Poll: I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In (drama)
May 22nd, 2025 08:20 amchina_shop posting in sid_guardianHi, I'm on a mini Taylor Swift kick, and yesterday I watched the OMV for "I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In". I know/suspect this song has already been vidded a lot, but for some reason, yesterday it immediately made me think of Guo Changcheng. So here is my "Guo Changcheng encounters trouble" poll, in the format of Cluedo (AKA Clue) guesses. :D
Poll #33147 Guo Changcheng's personal game of Clue/Cluedo
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12
Most traumatic, in the moment
View Answers
Zhao Yunlan in the SID with a lollipop (first meeting)
5 (45.5%)
Chu Shuzhi in Li Qian's house with a puppet
3 (27.3%)
Chu Shuzhi again in the fight club in a singlet
2 (18.2%)
Zhu Jiu in the zero-degree lab with cold air
1 (9.1%)
Zhu Jiu again in the bathroom with a fear baton
1 (9.1%)
Ya Qing in the graveyard with a threat
0 (0.0%)
Ye Zun in the bathroom with hypnosis
4 (36.4%)
Professor Ouyang in the lab with the serum
2 (18.2%)
Zhao Xinci in the park with a gun
2 (18.2%)
Ye Zun again in the palace with the Hallows
4 (36.4%)
other (I know I've skipped over so many!)
2 (18.2%)
The iguana at the SID is:
View Answers
Yashou and can leave its cage whenever it wants
3 (27.3%)
Yashou and is imprisoned
1 (9.1%)
the former chief of the SID, between Zhao Xinci and Zhao Yunlan, cursed by totally scientific means
4 (36.4%)
literally just an iguana
6 (54.5%)
other
0 (0.0%)
Wednesday Greetings from Connecticut!
May 21st, 2025 03:48 pmlydamorehouse Shawn and I have arrived in Connecticut for our son's graduation FROM COLLEGE (I know. I also don't know where the time went.) I will detail the entire trip, but per usual and since it is Wednesday, I will first bore you with my reading.
This week was slower than last, but I finished up what is currently available of Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle: Mammoths at the Gates and The Brides of High Hill. Of the two, I think I enjoyed Brides a little bit more because it flips the classic horror story of the imperiled bride and adds fox spirits. Plus, while Brides has all the magical Chinese-influenced characters and mythos, it has a slightly more Western storyline? The plot is plotty in the ways that Western readers, like myself, are familiar with. I loved all of these novellas, to be clear, but I think the people for whom When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain has been a favorite, this one should also work for them in a similar way.
Then, because I was unable to download one of the murderbot books I hadn't read yet (Exit Strategy) right away, I started on an audio book from 2016 which kind of fits the vibe of the current crop of Hugo nominees,davidlevine 's Arabella of Mars. It's a Regency SF book in the same way that A Scorceress Comes to Call is a Regency fantasy. It's a shame, in a way. I think that David was ahead of his time. This book (which I'm only 34% of the way into) is to science fiction what romantacy is to fantasy. It's kind of high personal drama, low stakes and I'm super into it.
Okay, so the rest of my life....
We set off on the road on Sunday. Sunday was our big push across country to Valparasio, Indiana. Shawn still has some remaining relatives in Indiana, namely her stepsiter Karen and her husband Don. I was not looking forward to dinner with them because we had been assaulted by dozens of pro-Trump signs as we drove across country and Don is... at BEST a libertairan of the sort who listens to Rush Limbaugh. But, he was mostly on good behavior, I think due to being exhausted from an extended bout of pneumonia. But, we still managed to have one interaction that was typical of him. Don is from the Chicago area originally and Catholic, so thinking this had to be a safe subject, I asked him what he thought of the new pope. He said, "Fine, except he's a Communist." I gave him my best "??" face and then said, "Uh, isn't that the point of Catholicism? What with the feeding of the poor and sharing of loaves and fishes?" Which, did, at least, give him pause.
Monday we drove from Valparaiso to Youngstown, OH. On this trip we did a bit of sightseeing as is our wont. Shawn picked up a brochure that suggested that there were some things to be seeing in Amish country, spectifically Middlebury and Shipshewana, IN. We never actually made it to Shipshewana, as it happened, because we found a lot to explore in Middlebury, specifically this lovely little park called the Krinder Gardens
Image: Me (left) and Shawn (right) all smiles in the gardens
This little garden was genuinely charming, and I always love getting off road to see something new and/or interesting.
Image: Lovely, weird bird sculpture in the garden
This being spring, we also got a chance to see a ton of lovely flowers in bloom.
Image: these one flowers I love (which I also grow in my own garden), but whose name I have blanked on.
So, that was fun. We saw a lot of horse drawn buggies, of course. My favorite thing about those was watching the horses very expertly knowing which stalls belonged to them in various parking lots. We even saw one buggie go into a... gas station??? (Shawn noted that the driver got out to fill a gas can, so probably fueling a generator or something. Not, as I'd hoped, gassing up the horse.)
We ate a rather boring meal at a place that advertised itself as Amish-inspired. Alas, it was only SLIGHTLY inspired. But, still, it was nice to have a sitdown meal before heading out for more hours of driving.
Yesterday, we drove from Youngstown, OH to Milford, PA. The very Milford where Daimon Knight used to hold his famous worskhop, where we spent the night in an actual MOTEL. The lady behind the counter there was a little bit... "Are you sure you don't want an extra bed?" but I refrained from pointing out that we'd hardly be sinning in that bed since we're quite legally married. But, the motel was actually very charming and I think attracts a lot of queer folks? There were some men on motorcycles who were extra friendly to us in a very 'family' way, if you know what I mean. I'm sure that lady behind the counter has a lot of disapproving to do.
Then, this morning we did the rather short hop between Milford and Middletown, CT, where we will be for the next several days as we pack up Mason's dorm and watch him get his diploma. I shall try to post pictures and such BEFORE next Wednesday, but I guess we'll see how well I manage that.
What about you all? Do anything fun this week? Read anything new, exciting, or good?
This week was slower than last, but I finished up what is currently available of Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle: Mammoths at the Gates and The Brides of High Hill. Of the two, I think I enjoyed Brides a little bit more because it flips the classic horror story of the imperiled bride and adds fox spirits. Plus, while Brides has all the magical Chinese-influenced characters and mythos, it has a slightly more Western storyline? The plot is plotty in the ways that Western readers, like myself, are familiar with. I loved all of these novellas, to be clear, but I think the people for whom When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain has been a favorite, this one should also work for them in a similar way.
Then, because I was unable to download one of the murderbot books I hadn't read yet (Exit Strategy) right away, I started on an audio book from 2016 which kind of fits the vibe of the current crop of Hugo nominees,
davidlevine 's Arabella of Mars. It's a Regency SF book in the same way that A Scorceress Comes to Call is a Regency fantasy. It's a shame, in a way. I think that David was ahead of his time. This book (which I'm only 34% of the way into) is to science fiction what romantacy is to fantasy. It's kind of high personal drama, low stakes and I'm super into it. Okay, so the rest of my life....
We set off on the road on Sunday. Sunday was our big push across country to Valparasio, Indiana. Shawn still has some remaining relatives in Indiana, namely her stepsiter Karen and her husband Don. I was not looking forward to dinner with them because we had been assaulted by dozens of pro-Trump signs as we drove across country and Don is... at BEST a libertairan of the sort who listens to Rush Limbaugh. But, he was mostly on good behavior, I think due to being exhausted from an extended bout of pneumonia. But, we still managed to have one interaction that was typical of him. Don is from the Chicago area originally and Catholic, so thinking this had to be a safe subject, I asked him what he thought of the new pope. He said, "Fine, except he's a Communist." I gave him my best "??" face and then said, "Uh, isn't that the point of Catholicism? What with the feeding of the poor and sharing of loaves and fishes?" Which, did, at least, give him pause.
Monday we drove from Valparaiso to Youngstown, OH. On this trip we did a bit of sightseeing as is our wont. Shawn picked up a brochure that suggested that there were some things to be seeing in Amish country, spectifically Middlebury and Shipshewana, IN. We never actually made it to Shipshewana, as it happened, because we found a lot to explore in Middlebury, specifically this lovely little park called the Krinder Gardens
Image: Me (left) and Shawn (right) all smiles in the gardens
This little garden was genuinely charming, and I always love getting off road to see something new and/or interesting.
Image: Lovely, weird bird sculpture in the garden
This being spring, we also got a chance to see a ton of lovely flowers in bloom.
Image: these one flowers I love (which I also grow in my own garden), but whose name I have blanked on.
So, that was fun. We saw a lot of horse drawn buggies, of course. My favorite thing about those was watching the horses very expertly knowing which stalls belonged to them in various parking lots. We even saw one buggie go into a... gas station??? (Shawn noted that the driver got out to fill a gas can, so probably fueling a generator or something. Not, as I'd hoped, gassing up the horse.)
We ate a rather boring meal at a place that advertised itself as Amish-inspired. Alas, it was only SLIGHTLY inspired. But, still, it was nice to have a sitdown meal before heading out for more hours of driving.
Yesterday, we drove from Youngstown, OH to Milford, PA. The very Milford where Daimon Knight used to hold his famous worskhop, where we spent the night in an actual MOTEL. The lady behind the counter there was a little bit... "Are you sure you don't want an extra bed?" but I refrained from pointing out that we'd hardly be sinning in that bed since we're quite legally married. But, the motel was actually very charming and I think attracts a lot of queer folks? There were some men on motorcycles who were extra friendly to us in a very 'family' way, if you know what I mean. I'm sure that lady behind the counter has a lot of disapproving to do.
Then, this morning we did the rather short hop between Milford and Middletown, CT, where we will be for the next several days as we pack up Mason's dorm and watch him get his diploma. I shall try to post pictures and such BEFORE next Wednesday, but I guess we'll see how well I manage that.
What about you all? Do anything fun this week? Read anything new, exciting, or good?
Trump Says He Only Wants To Help Red States, But He's Not Doing That, Either
May 21st, 2025 07:21 pmwonkette_feed
Throughout hurricane season last year, Donald Trump and others pushed endless conspiracy theories about how the Biden administration was failing to provide adequate relief and aid to disaster-stricken areas in red states. It wasn’t true. They claimed that the $750 Serious Needs Assistance checks people were getting in order to help them get groceries, baby food and other emergency needs were the only assistance they would be getting at all, even if they lost their homes. This was not true. Some claimed that instead of using those FEMA funds to help American citizens affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, President Biden used it to house undocumented immigrants. This was also untrue.
Some, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggested that they used their magic weather controlling technology to purposely target red states in the south. You know, because who ever heard of southern states being affected by hurricanes before then, huh?
They claimed that “they” were blocking rescuers, blocking private planes from taking people out of state, partly because they just hated Republicans, partly to keep them from voting (which, because of the electoral college, would likely not have had an effect unless the entire state abstained).
In reality, the administration provided $441 million to Helene survivors, and $349 million to support and rebuild communities affected by the hurricane.
If we were more conspiracy-minded, we might have speculated that the reason they were saying these things was because this was exactly what Donald Trump intended to do himself. As it turns out, we would have been absolutely correct.
Speaking to the press this week about his “big, beautiful bill” — because he thinks people will just go along with his adjectives — Trump proudly shared that “We don’t want to benefit Democrat[sic] governors.”
Take a moment and imagine a Democrat saying this, in any context. The tears that would flow! I mean, we are talking about people who are still reeling over “basket of deplorables.” They’d never let that go.
"We want to help all the states, but we have governors that are from the Democrat [sic] party, let's say New York, Illinois, big ones, and let's say Gavin 'Newscum,' who's done a horrible job in California."
Gavin Newsom has spent the last few months kissing MAGA ass, throwing trans people under the bus, desperately hoping for a crossover hit. So far, that doesn’t seem to be going especially well for him.
"We want to benefit Republicans. They are the ones that are going to make America great again," he added. "The Democrats are destroying our country."
Again, the sobs we would hear from the Right if any politician on the Left said anything like that. Their self-esteem is very delicate, you know.
But here’s the irony — Trump isn’t helping Republican governors or Republican states either. His former press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now governor of Arkansas, has been begging him for disaster aid ever since the state was struck with 14 tornadoes recently. Homes and businesses were destroyed, three people were killed, more were injured, and Arkansas needed help.
What normally happens in these scenarios is that the governor asks the federal government for help (as Sanders did), and then they issue a disaster declaration, which then allows the state (or states) affected to get FEMA grants to fix things back up.
But that didn’t happen.
However, on April 11, Sanders got a letter back from the Trump administration saying that they had “determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments, and voluntary agencies.”
Sanders has, since, continued to beg her old boss for help, which has not been given.
“Arkansas communities are still recovering from this spring’s tornadoes, as the sheer magnitude of this event resulted in overwhelming amounts of debris, widespread destruction to homes and businesses, the tragic loss of three lives, and injuries to many others,” Sanders said in a statement. “To relieve the burden on these counties, cities, and towns, I am appealing FEMA’s decision to deny Arkansas’ Major Disaster Declaration request.”
She has not heard back.
Similarly, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley asked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a hearing for the Senate Homeland Security Committee if she could pretty please see her way to getting Missouri some disaster relief as well, from all their storms and tornadoes.
“The state has pending three requests for major disaster declarations from earlier storms we’ve lost over a dozen people. Well, actually, if you count the folks we lost just on Friday, we’ve lost almost 20 people now in major storms just in the last two months in Missouri,” Hawley explained.
“Will you commit to helping, for those three major disaster declaration requests that are pending, will you expedite those, Secretary Noem, and get those in front of the president, get those approved?” Hawley asked. “We are desperate for the assistance in Missouri.”
Noem said that she would, though it’s hardly as if “getting them in front of the president” would matter. They’ve probably been there already.
Mississippi, the reddest of red states, is also waiting on its major disaster declaration requests, which have also gone ignored by the Trump administration.
To be fair, I’m sure Trump just has a different idea of what it means to help these red states out. Have they even tried to ask him for funds with which to build a large 24 karat gold giant statue of him at their capital? Because surely he’d be able to round up some cash for something like that. Or perhaps they could include such an idea in their disaster requests? Or even just promise to throw a big parade for him upon receipt of the funds. Or just mention how handsome and manly he’s looking these days. Compliment him on his new invisible outfit.
To paraphrase Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle he never mentions, “Ask not what Donald Trump can do for your state, ask what kind of creepy dictator propaganda nonsense would make him feel most appreciated and loved.”
That’s almost as good as disaster relief, right?
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Trump's Yip-Yap Dog Ric Grenell Gonna Put Kennedy Center IN JAIL
May 21st, 2025 05:40 pmwonkette_feed
One thing about Trump 2.0, there’s fewer characters to have to keep track of, because just a handful of people are doing all the jobs.
We’ve got two-jobs Todd and Russell, three-jobs Ed and Jamieson, and four-jobs Rubio, and spicing up that bowl of ranch dip, two-jobs Ric Grenell, who Donald Trump now has simultaneously trying to negotiate Americans out of Venezuelan prison and pulling off a culture-cancelling hostile takeover at the Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts.
And now Ric is already out here yip-yapping that they have found CRIMES there (at the Kennedy Center, not in Venezuelan prison), announcing at a dinner Monday night for Kennedy Center board members and hangers-on that there was “$26 million in phantom revenue, fake revenue” in the Kennedy Center’s books. “It’s criminal,” he said. “We’re going to refer this to the US attorney’s office here. We're lucky enough to have the attorney general on the board of the Kennedy Center who heard all the details. Today she heard the details, and this is unacceptable in America to have a fake revenue of $26 million fraud on previous donors.”
Oh yeah, we almost forgot Pam Jo Bondi has (at least) a third job too, serving on the Kennedy Center Board when she isn’t being attorney general or weaponizing the law and shame with Ed Martin over at the Weaponization Working Group, official keepers of the Trump enemies list.
Noted the New York Times, “It was not immediately clear what officials thought might be criminal, or why they thought it merited the attention of federal investigators.” Something something deferred revenue that dumdums who know nothing about running a nonprofit don’t understand.
Never mind, the important thing is that the Kennedy Center hurt the feelings of the world’s most sensitive and dramatic diva long ago, and he vowed to take his vengeance, and stand on the bones of his enemies while doing that double-handjob dance to “Memory” from Cats.
And of course, fascists always hate artistic expression, unless it is a baker refusing to make a gay wedding cake.
Before Ric made this announcement Monday night, though, Trump got up and treated the Board to a half-hour performance that included his hit song, STOLLEN ELECTION.
“And then they rigged the election, and then I said, ‘You know what I’ll do? I’ll run again and I’ll shove it up their ass.”
Please, grandpa, we just ate dinner!
Then after like 20 minutes of bitching about Democrats he finally got around to ranting specifically to the reason he was there:
To announce that in addition to “Lay Miz,” he will also bring back The Phantom of the Opera, with its wholesome hero, a disfigured basement-dweller who stalks women. Trump looooves The Phantom of the Opera and its Andrew Lloyd Webber synth-organs, because as it’s often been noted, his taste froze in 1989. Some People Have Been Saying that playing The Phantom of the Opera is one of the few ways to soothe an overheated Trump.
Not to my taste, and that is okay, not all art is for everybody. It is not supposed to be, it is supposed to speak to everyone a little bit differently, that is the point! Unless you’re a Republican, of course.
He said some blah blah blah DEI:
The programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda, DEI, and inappropriate shows. They had dance parties for quote ‘queer and trans youth.’ And I guess that’s all right for certain people.… But that wasn’t working out too well.
And yet, appearing at the MAGA Kennedy Center will be Mrs. Doubtfire, Chicago, and Spamalot, which all have drag parts. Lez Miz also seems pretty political, too, and not in a “Let’s celebrate the fascist takeover” kind of way? Go figure. (Donald Trump does not understand the plot of Les Misérables or any other musical.)
The Kennedy Center has been on Trump’s retribution list since at least 2017, after Kennedy Center Honors awardees Norman Lear and dancer Carmen de Lavallade threatened to boycott if Trump attended, in response to his “both sides”-ing about Charlottesville, and Trump skipped the event, citing the “political distraction,” AKA fear of a chorus of lusty BOOS. Like the ones JD Vance was to get there later!
And then there’s the former chairman of the Board of Trustees David Rubenstein, who Joseph Robinette Biden gave a Freedom Award for being one of the people who chafed Trump’s hemorrhoids the most, a list that included Killary, Bono, and even (((George Soros))) himself.
Rubenstein is a wealthy and generous lefty who started out his career as deputy domestic policy assistant to President Jimmy Carter, then went on to cofound and be co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity investment firm that manages more than $450 billion in assets. He’s signed the giving pledge, and is donating his wealth to stuff like art, museums, and preserving historical things in DC, and gave $111 million of his personal money to the Kennedy Center, making him its largest donor.
And as you’ll recall, Trump forcibly ousted chairman Rubenstein and all the Democrats on the Board of Trustees, and made himself the chair, then made a junk drawer of Board of Trustee appointments like caddy-cum-couper Dan Scavino, Usha Vance, Susie Wiles, the wife of Florida waste-management kingpin Anthony Lomangino, former Fox News producer Pamela Gross, and Mar-a-Lago DJ Sergio Gor.
And now, not content to take over, book non-union shows, and replace Alvin Ailey with more ballet, so much ballet, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet, we guess retribution is coming.
Intriguing character, that Ric Grenell. During Trump’s last campaign, he was the only person who was able to lure Melania out of her gazillion-dollar closet to come wheedle money at his Log Cabin Republican lunch, which was her only campaign appearance other than the convention. (Where IS Melania, anyway? Is she even in DC?)
It’s all part of a war on the arts, and, well, war on everybody! Which has always been part of the right-wing wish list. Trump’s 2026 budget takes it farther than ever, calling for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, and dozens of organizations have been notified that grants have been rejected or rescinded. Moreover, he is demanding a DEI purge of all institutions. What will be left of our arts institutions, museums libraries, universities, etc., in the future remains to be seen.
But if it trends the way it’s been going so far, the future will involve a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber, lots of gaudy depictions of Trump (dramatically artistically rendered bloody ear optional), and heavy-handed application of gold spray paint.
Read-in-Progress Wednesday
May 21st, 2025 11:09 amgeraineon posting in cnovelsThis is your weekly read-in-progress post for you to talk about what you're currently reading and reactions and feelings (if any)!
For spoilers:
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<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*
For spoilers:
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<b>Highlight for spoilers!*</b><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #FFFFFF">Your spoilers goes here.</span>*
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Stephen Miller Throws Dart At Map, Deports Migrants To ... South Sudan?
May 21st, 2025 04:05 pmwonkette_feed
In apparent violation of a court order, the Trump administration has begun deporting migrants from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan. Or to be carefully accurate since these shitbags never tell the truth about what they’re doing, the government appears to have begun flying deportees from those two countries to South Sudan, because their own governments refuse to accept back their deported citizens. Last night, a federal judge ordered the government to keep the deportees in its custody while he considers whether to order they be returned to US soil.
The order, by US District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts, requires the government to
“maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”
While Murphy left the details to the government’s discretion, he said he expects the migrants “will be treated humanely.”
And yes, that was an order, not a hope. Whether the government will follow it is anyone’s guess, since it already appears to have sent the Asian deportees to an unstable African nation that’s on the brink of civil war. That also seems like a pretty blatant violation of Murphy’s own April 18 order blocking such “third country removals,” unless the government follows some very clear fucking rules.
We should also note that this is separate from the cases where Trump used the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to send people without due process to that torture prison in El Salvador, forever, a process the Supremes have put on hold for now. Instead, this is a class action case involving migrants who actually did get due process in their cases so far, and are now under formal deportation orders. The legal question here is limited to the Trump/Stephen Miller regime’s bizarre efforts to deport people all over the world, to countries like Rwanda, and now South Sudan, that agree (for the right price) to take deportees whose home countries refuse to accept their return.
In that 48-page April order, Murphy wrote that the case
presents a simple question: before the United States forcibly sends someone to a country other than their country of origin, must that person be told where they are going and be given a chance to tell the United States that they might be killed if sent there?
Not surprisingly, Murphy ordered that before deporting anyone to countries to which they have no connections, the government must inform the person, in their own language, where it intends to send them, and give them a “meaningful opportunity” to contest being deported to those places if they would be placed in danger. That would include adequate advance notice, and information on how to file a challenge — again, in their own language. Not doing so would violate the migrant’s due process rights, Murphy said.
Just last Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals in New York refused the government’s “emergency” request to stay Murphy’s April order.
Now that the case of these southeast Asian migrants (apparently) sent to South Sudan is before Murphy, attorneys for the deportees argue — big surprise! — that their clients did not actually get any such opportunity to challenge their deportation, as the AP reports:
The apparent removal of one man from Myanmar was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents. He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well …
Similarly, NPR reports that attorneys for one Vietnamese man said he’d received less than 24 hours notice, and wasn’t given the chance to contest his deportation in his native language.
If those facts are true, “that leaves me in the uncomfortable position that this person is on their way to South Sudan in violation to my court order,” Murphy said during Tuesday's hearing.
Murphy ordered DHS last night to keep under its “custody and control” anyone it had deported to South Sudan or any other country, you fuckers, clearly trying to cut DHS off from once more arguing the deportees were no longer America’s problem once they’d been dragged in shackles off the plane. The AP reports that Murphy also ordered US officials to attend a hearing today to
identify the migrants impacted, address when and how they learned they would be removed to a third country, and what opportunity they were given to raise a fear-based claim. He also ruled that the government must provide information about the whereabouts of the migrants apparently already removed.
As NPR reports, there’s a lot of confusion — we’ll say it’s deliberate, too — about whether these folks have actually been sent to South Sudan, and if not, where they are. NPR reports that
Lawyers from DHS and the Department of Justice said during the hearing that the destination of the plane carrying T.T.P. was classified.
It wasn't immediately clear who else was on the plane, their nationalities, or how DHS can keep people in custody after they're removed to another country. DHS didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment after the judge's order.
On top of that, while attorneys for one man from Myanmar said that he’d already been deported to South Sudan, “Government lawyers disputed that and said he was on his way to his home country.”
The whole mess is a clusterfuck. See also this new Atlantic article about the larger fuckcluster of third-country deportations; it was published before the news of the deportations to South Sudan broke yesterday.
In a story published just before we were going to hit “post,” the BBC reports that DHS has just announced — in a statement that will probably also be full of shit — that it’s deporting eight “uniquely barbaric monsters” convicted of horrible crimes. Takes one to know one.
DHS spox Tricia McLaughlin, a master of Trumpspeak, insisted that South Sudan is not the final destination of the plane carrying them, but didn’t say where it was headed.
Ms McLaughlin told a briefing on Wednesday: “Every single one of them was convicted of a heinous crime, murder, rape, child rape, rape of a mentally and physically handicapped victim.”
She said it was “absurd for a US judge to try to dictate the foreign policy and national security of US”.
Maybe that’s true. Or maybe those eight deportees all committed terrible crimes, but other people who didn’t were also deported with them. In any case, due process is still a thing, even if Homeland Security Secretary Nazi Cosplay Barbie doesn’t know what’s in the Constitution.
We’ll keep you updated.
UPDATE: We’re learning a little more about the prisoners, via the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. (Follow him on Bluesky and check his feed whenever there’s immigration-law news breaking.) He explains that DHS spox Tricia McLaughlin has gone Full Putin, calling the deportation flight a “military operation” — but not a special one — and implying it mustn’t be questioned. Reichlin-Melnick adds that the claim is “total bull, it's a private Gulfstream jet contracted by ICE.” she called the judge an “activist” and made a point of always referring to the eight men as “monsters.”
He also explains why the administration is particularly hot to send the detainees away ASAP and with as little due process as possible: They’ve literally finished their US prison sentences, but their home countries do not want them back, so now the administration is tripping over its own dick (and due process) to make them another country’s problem, any country:
As expected, the men had very serious criminal convictions. Many likely served decades in prison, and, had they been U.S. citizens, would have been released after serving their criminal sentence (as they had).
South Sudan is on the brink of civil war and these men already served their time.
And it wouldn’t be a DHS presser without vicious lies about a judge:
An ICE spokesperson attacks Judge Murphy, saying "this judge wants these criminals, these rapists, murderers, out on the streets."
That's a staggering insult to a federal judge trying to ensure that ICE follows his court order — which did NOT bar deportation or detention!
We certainly hope Judge Murphy has good security and is able to get his family to a safe location, and yes we are typing that sentence in the United States of America in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Five.
Christ.
[AP / Law & Crime / Order in DVD v. DHS / The Handbasket / NPR / Atlantic / BBC]
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(no subject)
May 21st, 2025 12:47 pmmajuThis morning I phoned the H&R Block local office where S and I used to go to have our tax returns done, pre-Covid, to see if they could help me get in contact with the person (or people) who have been working remotely on S's and my returns. The first person I spoke to was very helpful; she set up an appointment for a call-back between 10 am and midday on Friday this week and told me to call the office again if nobody called me back during this two hour window, and she would start a complaint process. A few minutes later someone else from H&R Block called to ask me if I had the call-back, so I told him that this had been arranged for Friday. He looked at my record and saw that appointment, but he said he would try to talk with Doc, the main person who is supposed to be handling our returns. So I'm hoping that something is happening and that I'll get to hear about it soon.
It's grey and damp today (and much colder than usual for this time of year) so I used the exercise bike instead of going out to exercise. I'm not sore from carrying a heavy backpack yesterday, but I still felt I could use a (self indulgent) break from walking or running.
It's grey and damp today (and much colder than usual for this time of year) so I used the exercise bike instead of going out to exercise. I'm not sore from carrying a heavy backpack yesterday, but I still felt I could use a (self indulgent) break from walking or running.
365 Questions 2025
May 21st, 2025 12:40 pmmaju16. What’s your definition of heaven? Being able to be outside doing something active on a beautiful mild sunny day like today, followed by relaxing inside - all in the company of someone you love.
17. What is your most prized possession? One possession I'm very glad I have is my sewing machine.
18. How would you describe yourself in one sentence? A quiet person who likes to be active as well as inactive.
19. What stands between you and happiness? My own tendency to procrastinate.
20. What makes a person beautiful? I think it's a combination of attractive physical features plus personality, but if someone has an attractive personality without being especially physically attractive, you tend to forget what they look like after a very short time.
17. What is your most prized possession? One possession I'm very glad I have is my sewing machine.
18. How would you describe yourself in one sentence? A quiet person who likes to be active as well as inactive.
19. What stands between you and happiness? My own tendency to procrastinate.
20. What makes a person beautiful? I think it's a combination of attractive physical features plus personality, but if someone has an attractive personality without being especially physically attractive, you tend to forget what they look like after a very short time.
Relief
May 21st, 2025 09:09 amsusandennisI was counting the days it takes from the time Biggie eats something wrong until it's time for surgery so that I would know if I could get it done at the vet here instead of at the emergency vet while I folded up the quilt to put it away and there... lying innocently in the folds... was dilator number 12.
Such a relief.
Bed clothes changed and bed made and I'm dressed and ready to face whatever else this day decides.
I did put a load of wash in and discovered yet another vote for Steve The Repair Guy. For as long as I can remember, every time I've done a load of laundry, I've gotten a warning to clean the filter. Since I always clean it after every load, I just clear the warning and proceed. But, now that Steve taught me how to clean it properly... no more warning! Very cool.
And one last thing I forgot to report. The tariff hoarders have hit the Kerigold supply. Safeway always has a very well stocked section of all of their different forms and flavors. Not so yesterday. They had a couple of tubs of the w/olive oil version and one of the way more expensive 2 stick packages. And that was it. But, I learned down and in and scored 4 of the regular 1 pounders way at the very back where you could hardly see them. (Yep, I am a hoarder, too!) Whew.
If I die tonight, whoever empties my fridge will really wonder what the fuck is up with all the damn butter! (Or be really grateful for the found treasure!)
My Mom used to do this. There was the Great Pimento Shortage. Our pantry shelves were taken over by those little jars of pimento for years. In her later years, I'd get emails with the subject line 'If I die tonight' and then a description of why she had just bought a 4 year supply of make up sponges or light bulbs or whatever.
So at least I come by this kink honestly.
Such a relief.
Bed clothes changed and bed made and I'm dressed and ready to face whatever else this day decides.
I did put a load of wash in and discovered yet another vote for Steve The Repair Guy. For as long as I can remember, every time I've done a load of laundry, I've gotten a warning to clean the filter. Since I always clean it after every load, I just clear the warning and proceed. But, now that Steve taught me how to clean it properly... no more warning! Very cool.
And one last thing I forgot to report. The tariff hoarders have hit the Kerigold supply. Safeway always has a very well stocked section of all of their different forms and flavors. Not so yesterday. They had a couple of tubs of the w/olive oil version and one of the way more expensive 2 stick packages. And that was it. But, I learned down and in and scored 4 of the regular 1 pounders way at the very back where you could hardly see them. (Yep, I am a hoarder, too!) Whew.
If I die tonight, whoever empties my fridge will really wonder what the fuck is up with all the damn butter! (Or be really grateful for the found treasure!)
My Mom used to do this. There was the Great Pimento Shortage. Our pantry shelves were taken over by those little jars of pimento for years. In her later years, I'd get emails with the subject line 'If I die tonight' and then a description of why she had just bought a 4 year supply of make up sponges or light bulbs or whatever.
So at least I come by this kink honestly.
Quick rec
May 21st, 2025 08:40 amsartoriasI've been snowed by various loads of stuff, including reading subs for Viable Paradise's workshop in October. My reading has been sporadic, and usually language-related. Like, I'm making my glacial way through a really good biography of Liselotte von her Pfalz, which is in German. I'm reading French comics, and so on and so on.
But! When I lumber this old bod out for daily steps, I listen to audiobooks. I've been making my way through T. Kingfisher's stories, and enjoyed them, but took a break for a real delight called RAVENMASTER, by Christopher Skaife. He wrote about his job as Ravenmaster at the Tower of London.
I'm sure the printed book is just fine--it's vigorously written, full of all kinds of facts as well as legends, etc, and sprinkled with humor. But I highly recommend the audio book, which he narrated. He has a great voice, which adds to the sheer delight. I wish it was longer.
OK, back to work trying to crawl back into my twelve-year-old headspace so I can finish a project that has been hanging fire for too many years.
But! When I lumber this old bod out for daily steps, I listen to audiobooks. I've been making my way through T. Kingfisher's stories, and enjoyed them, but took a break for a real delight called RAVENMASTER, by Christopher Skaife. He wrote about his job as Ravenmaster at the Tower of London.
I'm sure the printed book is just fine--it's vigorously written, full of all kinds of facts as well as legends, etc, and sprinkled with humor. But I highly recommend the audio book, which he narrated. He has a great voice, which adds to the sheer delight. I wish it was longer.
OK, back to work trying to crawl back into my twelve-year-old headspace so I can finish a project that has been hanging fire for too many years.