snacky | Reading

1. I had a dentist appointment this morning and got that new cavity taken care of. Thankfully it was a small one and didn't take them long to fix. (Also because it was just a small one, with my insurance it was only $29! The cleaning was way more than that!)

2. Look at that blep!

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Crowd-sourcing randomness poll, heads got 19.4%, tails got 22.2%, edge got 25%, and zero-g (the coin never falls) got 38.9%. Either a) the laws of probability have ceased to function in a localised manner, b) Dreamwidth is surprisingly popular in space, c) we've stepped into an alternate dimension, or d) these results are not statistically robust.

In ticky-boxes, hugs came first with 75%, followed by surviving AO3 outages (69.4%), and grumbly cats in search of treats (66.7%). Thank you for your votes!

Reading
Two chapters to go in The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. It hasn't hugely grabbed me, maybe because of my stop-start reading habits, but I am very much enjoying mentally casting Grover from Sesame Street as Gurgi. I have an omnibus of the Chronicles, so I may continue on to The Black Cauldron.

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, read by Arian Moayed -- ahh, this is so good! It's about a young death-obsessed recovering-alcoholic gay Iranian American who's writing a book about martyrs. It reminds me a bit of Love in the Big City, but it's more experimental and lyrical. I'm ~~halfway through~~ nearly done. Surprising, funny, sad, beautifully written. Warnings for drug use, alcohol addiction, suicidal ideation, and politics.

Also Guardian by priest, and I currently have on loan from the library: No Rules Tonight by Hyun Sook Kim and Freya Marske's Swordcrossed in audio.

Kdramas
My Dearest Nemesis -- I am enjoying this so much. The leading man, as well as being a closet fanboy, is adorably ridiculous and so love-starved. I want to give him a puppy. (In fact, I think he should just have a dog for a couple of years, and one or two more friends, and then he can get a girlfriend.)

Other TV
Ghosted on Apple TV+, a spy/romcom with Chris Evans and Ana de Armas. The reviews are terrible, and it was indeed very very silly, but we watched it on its own terms and enjoyed it tremendously. Some laugh-out-loud moments. A+ popcorn movie! (The trailer is VERY spoilery, ftr.)

Murderbot, Poker Face, Fringe, Étoile (omg, someone please give these people media training!! Also, I'm sad I looked at that one gifset, because I'm very spoiled for the plot thread I'm most invested in, which is undercutting the tension), and Turning Point: The Vietnam War (so disturbing and thoughtful and informative).

Guardian/Fandom
Partying on. <3 <3 <3

Audio entertainment
Not much; my listening time is being eaten by Martyr!

Writing/making things
I'm currently working on a handful of different shortish things in a desultory "what shall I pick up today?" fashion. This is not how I finish things or even get a satisfying sense of progress! (Yesterday's was another CSZ/SW/ZYL fic -- many deliciously difficult feelings; today's was a gen drabble sequence for FFW.) Just pick a WIP and finish it, china!

I now have 238 Guardian fanworks on AO3. Ten more will make it my most-created-for fandom. # writing goals

Online life
I keep getting as far as checkout on shop websites and then drifting off. The fear of buyer's remorse is very real. Yet another reason I have so many tabs open.

Link dump
Screenwriter's Secret to Mindblowing Plot Twists by

heyjameshurst |

mergatrude's e/R playlist (Youtube) | Music: Mon Rovîa - Rust. (Live) (Youtube, via

teaotter) | US politics: 5 calls | Newsblur RSS reader | ‘I wanted to be a teacher not a cop’: the reality of teaching in the world of AI (The Spinoff, local indie newsite) | Hieronymus Bosch butt music (tumblr link, via

mific) | Underrated Apple TV+ show recs? (

tv_talk post) | Thai Coconut Chicken Soup recipe (via

autodach) | Poetic fic meme (via

extrapenguin). There, I've closed a dozen or so tabs. # progress

Good things
New shampoo making my hair soft. Guardian. Warm buttery toast. My sister coming over this evening. Kdramas and books. Yesterday's sunshine, and walking through the trees along a shared mountain-bike trail. Sushi on the waterfront. Writing. Clean sheets.

Poll #33341 Companions

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 17

View Respondents

What talking animal would you take on an adventure?

View Answers

emotionally unavailable alley cat
4 (23.5%)

naive gecko
3 (17.6%)

sad wolf
4 (23.5%)

stoic capybara
6 (35.3%)

trivia-obsessed fennec fox
4 (23.5%)

upbeat skunk
4 (23.5%)

coffee-addicted giant panda
2 (11.8%)

other
1 (5.9%)

ticky-box of frittered-away time
7 (41.2%)

ticky-box full of infinite monkeys and... wait, who's providing all the typewriters?
7 (41.2%)

ticky-box full of liquid birdsong that tastes like vengeance
7 (41.2%)

ticky-box full of dancing, light as thistledown, to an orchestra of metronomes
5 (29.4%)

ticky-box full of hugs
8 (47.1%)

k2daisy

After a torturous journey of fits and starts and big stretches of waiting with no break in the stress, the roof permit was finally, finally, FINALLY approved. Which meant the house was at last sold. But honestly, that permit almost broke me. The house sale is almost anti-climactic in comparison. So many people meant well and wanted to help, but we had to go through every single step, sometimes twice, and very few people could actually complete those steps. It is a testament to my personal growth that I held my temper and did not go off on anyone, even when they cost me sleepless nights or hot anxious tears or thousands of dollars in extra fees.

But it's over. The permit is done. My obligation to Cape Coral is finished. The house is sold.

The estate is closing up too; I signed the last few documents and those checks should get sent out to us each hopefully this week.

Then the memorial and water burial is in two weeks. My parents will truly be gone.

I miss them so much. I want to call my mom every day. I want to play Lexulous with my dad.

I am glad they were able to leave us money; it's a really nice nest egg that I can use to improve my own house (which they would love as they constantly did home improvement) and put the rest aside for our retirement days. But I would rather have them than the money.

neonvincent

I stumbled across this image while putting 'Sinners' leads Best Horror Movie nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards together. I already had an image to use.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: birds and traffic noise

rachelmanija

Ellie is a Lipan Apache teenager in a world where magic, vampires, ghosts, and so forth are known to be real. She’s inherited the family gift for raising ghosts, though she only raises animals; human ghosts always come back wrong, and she’s happy with the companionship of her beloved ghost dog Kirby, not to mention her pet ghost trilobite. But when her cousin, who supposedly died in a car crash, returns in a dream to tell her he was murdered, she finds that knowing who killed him isn’t as helpful as one might imagine…

Ellie’s cousin Trevor told her the name of his killer, Abe Allerton from Willowbee, but he didn’t know why or how he was killed. Ellie enlists her best friend, Jay, a cheerleader with just enough fairy blood to give him pointy ears and the ability to make small lights. More importantly, he’s good at research. They learn that Willowbee is in Texas, near the town where Trevor lived with his wife, Lenore, and their baby. Jay brings in help: his older sister’s fiancé, Al, who’s a vampire.
All of them, plus Ellie’s parents and a ghost mammoth belonging to her grandmother, play a part in the effort to solve the mystery of Trevor’s death and bring his murderer to justice. And so, in a sense, will a major character who’s long dead (and not a ghost) but who’s a big presence in Ellie’s life: Six-Grand, her great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother, the last person to have a gift as powerful as Ellie’s… and who vanished forever into the underworld.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. I mean, come on. GHOST TRILOBITE. GHOST MAMMOTH. It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s heartfelt, it has lovely chapter heading illustrations, and it’s got some gorgeous imagery - I particularly loved a scene where the world transforms into an oceanic underworld, and Ellie sees a pod of whales swimming in the sky of a suburban neighborhood.

It's marketed as young adult and Ellie is seventeen, but the book feels younger (and so does Ellie.) I'd have no qualms handing it to an advanced nine-year-old reader, but it also appeals to adult me who misses the time when "urban fantasy" meant "our world, but with ghosts, elves, and so forth."

mergatrude

Finished The Iron Will of Genie Lo and I really enjoyed it. Genie is such an unreliable narrator in a very fun way. The other characters are all charming and I liked the direction the book went in. I also liked how it felt satisfactorily concluded.

Watched KPop Demon Hunters with the dude, who's a bit of a KPop fan. It was a lot of fun and hit all the typical 'slayer' beats. The animation style was cool.

Continuing with the girl power theme, I have Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (author of Vespertine, which I believe some of you have read) and Skipshock by Caroline O'Donoghue to read next.

We have acquired a copy of Flow to watch because it was only in cinemas for a week and we missed it.

And of course I'm still listening to Murderbot on the bus to and from work. If they make a second season of the TV series based on Artificial Condition I really hope they get Kevin R. Free to voice ART. He's so good!

mrkinch

U was unavailable this morning and I didn't have much energy, so Chris and I walked up to Jewel Lake on the boardwalk and back on the road, an easy morning. Bird activity is decreasing, although I think this morning the heavy overcast, cold, and wind may have been a factor. We didn't heard Warbling Vireos until we were almost to the Lake, and didn't hear a Black-headed Grosbeak until the sun broke through a little, see above. Highlights of the morning were the Brown Creeper at Jewel Lake climbing the snag and slipping under the bark, so amazing to see; and at least two fledgling Wilson's Warblers making their begging call, which I'm not sure I've heard before, and fluttering to be fed. We heard a mysterious call while we were sitting by the lake that Chris traced to a juvenile Spotted Towhee, so another new call. The Anna's Hummingbird nest was well and truly abandoned. I will be interested to see how quickly and to what extent it disintegrates. ( The list: )

We heard White-breasted Nuthatch again. I guess it's dispersal and I don't expect any to stay, it's only marginally appropriate habitat, but it's fun while they are here.

torachan

1. I did indeed have a WFH day today and it was pretty chill. Got everything on my to-do list done and had two good web interviews.

2. I'm really enjoying Mario Kart World. And just ten more days until the new Donkey Kong game, which looks like it will be amazing!

3. Molly is demonstrating the proper way to help at the computer.

neonvincent

I had a spot for this video in 'Human Footprint' on PBS Terra explains 'How Supermarkets Rewired The Planet', but reached a natural conclusion before I could use it.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Star Wars: The Old Republic

torachan

1. We walked down to our favorite deli this morning to pick up sandwiches for lunch. The UV index was pretty high today so even though we tried to stick to the shade as much as possible, it was still exhausting being out in that level of sun, but the temperature was nice and there was a good breeze every now and then and it was a very nice walk overall.

2. Back to work tomorrow. :( Thinking of maybe making it a WFH day, though. So far the only meeting-like things I have are two web interviews, so that can be done from home, and I've got a lot of desk work and email to catch up on from the three-day weekend. So if no one comes up with anything urgent that needs me in person I think I'll stay home.

3. Tuxie is so handsome!

crantz

A few months ago I was at the coffee shop to finish a rapidly approaching overdue story for a fic exchange and noticed a poster for an upcoming ZineFest in town! A bigger city's comic group wanted to trial balloon something in our much smaller city to see if it could work. It had no url on it! At all! But I photographed the name and used the internet and found their instagram and their email and contacted their email because I had no instagram and got the url to their just made website which changed a week later! Anyway after much trial and error including 2 days of their sign up form not working until I discovered it would on the third browser I tried, I signed up for it!

And then waited a month or so for a response.

I got in!

I made all my zines, made stickers, packed up my Ceramic Objects, made a sign and day of we got there in plenty of time, had no problems at set up (minus needing to borrow some tape from the front desk of the art gallery where it was being held) and it went great!

I actually sold stuff! People wanted to buy my writing and my art! I made back the cost of everything! And I talked to so many people and the only bad part is I am one of those people who has to deliberately make facial expressions and it had been so long since I worked in retail I had forgotten the facial movements for a customer service smile and my brain was relaying to me that the muscle movements I felt weren't 'friendly smile' they were 'death rictus'.

But everyone was very nice, no horror stories at all! And it feels so amazing people wanted creative stuff I'd done, you have no idea!

In other news, the latest 'episode' of the Star Trek game I run finished. It was a Beach Episode with lots of Section 31 bullshittery where the players rolled as horribly as possible at every juncture. It was kind of beautiful. However, they got in some AMAZING character moments they hadn't before I would call the whole thing a massive success. The person I'm running these games for primarily and I are now planning the next episode with some very interesting stuff I have to keep under my hat for now.

The Cthulhu/Catthulhu game is going well. I'm managing good player participation, the modifications of the game are going well, and I decided to do a pretty bold move this session that really deviated from the module but got a clue across to the cats that I could not have had them discover otherwise. They also really liked my latest npcs - Pasta and Devil the hippy and military dogs, and Lucille the mangled but healthy and wellspoken cat who keeps/protects the murderous npc Bogdan.

Previous NPC successes were Wiggle and Squeak, the guinea pigs who thought that now their owner was dead, they were going to inherit the house. They had renovation plans. And Fraulein Hoffman, who to her and everyone else's surprise is not a cat but an opossum and possibly having an affair with Burgocat Hans.

I've been having trouble making Pathfinder comics lately, or even HamsterBandit Industries comics lately. I have a lot of pencils and scripts but actually committing to finishing has been tough. I'll wait for a 3 am manic period I guess.

coffeeandink

Ghost Quartet is a band: Dave Malloy on keyboard, Brent Arnold on cello, Gelsey Bell and Brittain Ashford on various instruments, and everyone providing vocals. Ghost Quartet is a song cycle, a concert album performed semi-staged, a mash-up of "Snow White, Rose Red," The One Thousand and One Nights, the Noh play Matsukaze, "Cruel Sister", "The Fall of the House of Usher", the front page photo of a fatal train accident, and a grab bag of Twilight Zone episodes. The ghost of Thelonious Monk is sometimes invoked, but does not appear; whisky is often invoked, and, if you see the show live, will most certainly appear. "I'm confused/And more than a little frightened," says (one incarnation of) the (more-or-less) protagonist. "It's okay, my dear," her sister/lover/mother/daughter/deuteragonist reassures her, "this is a circular story."

Once upon a time two sisters fell in love with an astronomer who lived in a tree. He seduced Rose, the younger, then stole her work ("for a prestigious astronomy journal"), and then abandoned her for her sister, Pearl. Rose asked a bear to maul the astronomer in revenge, but the bear first demanded a pot of honey, a piece of stardust, a secret baptism, and a photograph of a ghost. (The music is a direct quote of the list of spell ingredients from Into the Woods.) Rose searches for all these ingredients through multiple lifetimes; and that's the plot.

Except it is much less comprehensible than that. The songs are nested in each other like Scheherazade's stories; you can follow from one song to the next, but retracing the connections in memory is impossible; this is less a narrative than a maze. Surreal timelines crash together in atonal cacophany; one moment Dave Malloy, or a nameless astronomer played by Dave Malloy, or Dave Malloy playing Dave Malloy is trying to solve epistemology and another moment the entire house of Usher, or all the actors, are telling you about their favorite whiskies. The climax is a subway accident we have glimpsed before, in aftermath, in full, circling around it, a trauma and a terror that cannot be faced directly; the crash is the fall of a house is the failure to act is the failure to look is the failure to look away.

There are two recordings available. Ghost Quartet, recorded in a studio, has cleaner audio, but Live at the McKitterick includes more of the interstitial scenes and feels more like the performance.

In Greenwood Cemetery, there were three slightly raised stages separated by batches of folding chairs, one for Dave Malloy, one for Brent Arnold, and one for Gelsey Bell and Brittain Ashford, with a flat patch of grass in the center across which they sang to each other, and into which they sometimes moved; you could sit in the chairs, or on cushions in front of the first row, or with cheaper tickets you could sit in the grass on the very low hills above the staging area, among the monuments and gravestones, and, presumably, among more ghosts. The show started a little before sunset; I saw a hawk fly over, and I could hear birds singing along when the humans sang a capella. It was in the middle of Brooklyn, so even after dark I couldn't see stars; but fireflies sparked everywhere.

mrkinch

Every time I go it's a little bit quieter, but still fun. This morning, not at all early, it was even sunny! The Swainson's Thrushes and Wilson's Warblers were singing and I heard a Black-headed Grosbeak singing, which I did not last time. There was still activity at the Red-breasted Nuthatch nest hole, though I'm not sure what sort of activity, and I saw very likely the same juvenile Spotted Towhee scratching in the road. So nothing especially interesting but an enjoyable morning. ( The list: )

I was tired this morning for no good reason that I can see so I didn't get out to the bench, but I did hang out at the Blue Gum picnic tables for a while. It was such a beautiful day!

musesfool

I know I had some stuff I wanted to post about but now I can't remember what it was. Oh well.

I finally watched Captain America: Brave New World and it was fine. ( spoilers )

*

RIP Julian McMahon and Mark Snow.

*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Magpie to the Morning - Neko Case

neonvincent

I was going to use this in 'Dune: Part Two' at the Critics Choice Super Awards, then realized I reached a natural stopping point before I would have. Later.

Current Mood: full
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Star Wars: The Old Republic

anghraine

Okay, so this is the Tarsus IV post I vaguely ~~threatened~~ alluded to here. I wrote most of it before I wrote the post grumbling about movie Kirk, btw, so it’s not a result of that one. I was already thinking about what we know about Kirk and the Tarsus IV massacre from TOS, and what speculations and headcanons make the most sense to me in the context of TOS. I just waited until today to post it because I wasn’t quite done earlier.

Anyway, I was going over the finer details of “The Conscience of the King” to figure this out, and ended up with a ton of thoughts about the Tarsus IV backstory. So here are my (many) personal takeaways:

Firstly, there’s a vague reference to some kind of local coup or uprising that put Governor Kodos in power, I think shortly before the food supply crisis. We don’t get any details about the uprising from TOS, though the next to last version of the episode’s script did mention Kodos setting himself up as a messianic figure once the coup succeeded, and Barry Trivers' original, more expansive backstory does explain pretty much all the vague details in the aired episode [ETA 7/5/2025: I wrote a post later about that backstory, which is entirely consistent with TOS and makes so much more sense to me than the various official explanations of these details that I choose to adopt it pretty wholeheartedly, but I hadn't dug through it all when I wrote this post in February]. In any case, Kodos's power grab was certainly reinforced by the starvation crisis, as revealed by Spock’s research:

“there were over eight thousand colonists and virtually no food. And that was when Governor Kodos seized full power and declared emergency martial law.”

As far as we know in TOS, the crisis was set off by chance: an exotic fungus happened to destroy most of the colony’s food supply, and it wasn’t clear when relief would arrive. In fact, the Federation did send relief to the colony, per their usual practice, but it took them long enough to get there that the situation had become dire by then. Nearly all food was gone, and the colonists were starving. The episode implies that some had even started committing suicide. Nevertheless, the Federation relief force arrived sooner than expected.

Kodos tries to argue in “The Conscience of the King” that the Federation’s relief showing up so soon was just luck, and he couldn’t have guessed it would happen. But given what we know about the Federation as an institution, and given the urgent pressure the Federation puts on the Enterprise crew in multiple episodes to get food/supplies/medicine to some colony or another, it seems like there is a pretty competent, long-established Federation infrastructure for addressing crises like this. I think it's important to remember that for all of his mournful gravitas, Kodos as a character is defined by his refusal to accept accountability for the atrocities he orchestrated, especially accountability to his surviving victims; he offers a lot of excuses while maneuvering around even admitting he is Kodos, and we are given no reason to accept these. Rather, every indication is that in reality, Kodos used the circumstances to justify something he already believed in and wanted to try implementing.

That thing was eugenics. This isn’t ambiguous; the aired episode explicitly describes his atrocities as based on eugenics. The starvation of the colony gave Kodos the opportunity to put his theories into action.

( Read more... )

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: Runaway (Bon Jovi)

umadoshi

scruloose and I did make it to the little farmers' market down the road for its opening day of the season, and even managed to get there earlier than later! (I think it's open from 8 to 1, and we probably were there...a bit after 10?)

We made it home with two quarts of strawberries and one of cherries, new potatoes, a dozen eggs, and boneless chicken thighs, plus a bee balm for the garden, which we quickly tucked into a fairly open space in our little garden bed yesterday evening. (What was there before? UNKNOWN. Will I manage to reconstruct it from old posts or something? Also unknown. But hey, a plant!)

Reading: I finished Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 (M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi), which was fantastic. On the fiction front, I followed it up with Tamsyn Muir's novella Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (not really my thing--I continue to rarely bond with novellas, I guess--but interestingly done), Sacha Lamb's When the Angels Left the Old Country (marvelous), and Sofia Samatar's The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain (again, didn't really bond emotionally, but it executed what it was doing beautifully).

Non-fiction: David Chang and Priya Krishna's Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave), which is, like...primarily actually a David Chang book that Priya Krishna did a ton of heavy-lifting assisting on (which may be very normal for co-written cookbooks, but in this case she was interjecting and clarifying in her own voice as well as doing a fair bit of the actual writing in his voice, and it was all very transparent that it was being done that way, but also a little odd to read). I think I bought this as a sale ebook before hearing that Chang (the Momofuku guy) is something of an asshole, but then when I was reading it, it felt really promising as a book that might be genuinely useful for me (and even by cookbook standards, its ebook is terribly formatted), so I was pleasantly surprised to readily find a used half-price hard copy available on line, which is winging its way to me now. I've also made sure that Krishna's own Indian-Ish: Recipes and Antics from a Modern American Family is now on the wishlist where I keep an eye out for ebook sales.

And now I'm reading An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler, which is a cookbook mostly in the form of essays on cooking as a thoughtful/mindful practice.

Watching: One more Murderbot episode to go in this season, and oh, I hope we get a second one. I'm going to miss this little show.

We finished watching the second season of Kingdom (the historical zombies k-drama), which I found very satisfying. The ending very much sets up a subsequent season, and there's a movie out that fills in the backstory of the person/people we glimpse at the end of season 2 who would presumably be extremely central in any further season, but I don't think we feel inspired to watch said backstory movie unless a third season of the show is ever announced and it becomes relevant in that way.

torachan

1. We had such a nice time at Disneyland this morning. Too sunny but otherwise lovely weather and so few crowds!

2. We stopped at the farmers market on the way home and got some stuff from our usual vendors (the fruit leather guy definitely knows me now) but there was also a new vendor, a vegan Jewish deli that had all sorts of interesting stuff. Carla got a jar of some sort of pickle relish and I got some pastries including a stone fruit "cheese" danish (idk what the cheese was but everything was vegan so it wasn't actually dairy) that was super good and a pistachio cardamom apricot hamantaschen, which I haven't tried yet but that flavor combo is a favorite so I have high hopes.

3. I love that feeling on the middle day of a three day weekend when you realize that you don't have work tomorrow. That keeps happening throughout the day and it's a pleasant surprise every time. Definitely looking forward to one more day of rest.

4. Jasper's definitely got the relaxing down.

gwydion

* News keeps moving fast, so some items may be already out of date.

* "94 Palestinians killed in Gaza, including 45 people waiting for aid, authorities say:" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/94-palestinians-killed-in-gaza-including-45-people-waiting-for-aid-authorities-say

* "New reporting on Palestinians killed while waiting for food" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/new-reporting-on-palestinians-killed-while-waiting-for-food-242731077896

******

* "U.N. nuclear watchdog says Iran could enrich uranium again in 'a matter of months':" https://www.npr.org/2025/06/29/nx-s1-5450282/u-n-nuclear-watchdog-says-iran-could-enrich-uranium-again-in-a-matter-of-months

* "Israel and U.S. Smashed Iran Nuclear Site That Grew After Trump Quit 2015 Accord:" https://archive.ph/y2Vw2

* "Intercepted call of Iranian officials downplays damage of U.S. attack:" https://archive.ph/9oIU3

* "Trump Threatens to Sue The Times and CNN Over Iran Reporting:" https://archive.ph/4D5KB

* "Senate rejects push to rein in Trump on Iran:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/27/congress/senate-rejects-push-to-rein-in-trump-on-iran-00430403

******

* "Pentagon Under Scrutiny Over Decision to Halt Weapons to Ukraine:" https://archive.ph/cjmTo

******

* "Fearing war with Russia, Finland hardens NATO’s north frontier:" https://archive.ph/Ho5Ju

* "Multiple bodies found with hands and feet tied in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bodies-found-hands-feet-tied-mediterranean-mallorca-spain/

* "Jewish Teen Threatened at Knifepoint in France Amid Surge in Antisemitic Attacks:" https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/06/25/jewish-teen-threatened-knifepoint-france-amid-surge-antisemitic-attacks/

* "USAID cuts may cause over 14 million additional deaths by 2030, study says:" https://archive.ph/LqKtq

* "Canada drops digital tax that angered Trump to resume US trade talks:" https://www.politico.eu/article/canada-drop-digital-tax-angere-donald-trump-resume-trade-talks/

* "US Reaches Vietnam Trade Deal With 20% Import Tariff, Trump Says:" https://archive.ph/fQyJN

* "Powell says Trump's tariffs have delayed lower rates but won’t rule out July cut:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/01/fed-powell-tariffs-trump-rates-00435012

* "Trump attacks Fed again in open letter calling for lower rates:" https://www.axios.com/2025/06/30/trump-fed-powell-interest-rates

* "Supreme Court lets Trump admin deport men detained in shipping container for 6 weeks to South Sudan:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/03/supreme-court-third-country-deportations-south-sudan-00439701

* "Judge blocks ‘sweeping’ asylum crackdown after Trump declared ‘invasion’ at southern border:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/02/donald-trump-immigratin-border-asylum-ruling-00437708

* "The Concentration Camp Re-imagined As A Hype House:" https://www.garbageday.email/p/trump-s-big-beautiful-gulag-eceef93f0f861d7b

* "Trump administration sues Los Angeles over its 'sanctuary city' policies:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-administration-sues-los-angeles-sanctuary-city-immigration-polic-rcna216011

* "New Marines arrive in Los Angeles as first wave heads home:" https://taskandpurpose.com/news/new-marines-rotating-into-la/

* "Immigration enforcement protesters march on downtown LA streets on July 4th:" https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/immigration-enforcement-protesters-take-to-downtown-la-streets/

* "The media may not care, but ICE is still running roughshod over LA this July 4th:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2043483.html

* "DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship:" https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5445398/denaturalization-trump-immigration-enforcement

* "Trump again floats deporting U.S. citizens: ‘Maybe that’ll be the next job’:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-again-floats-deporting-u-s-citizens-maybe-that-ll-be-the-next-job-242566725803

* "Man Born on Army Base to US Soldier Deported to Jamaica:" https://www.newsweek.com/man-born-army-base-us-soldier-deported-jamaica-2092017

* "Handcuffing Dissent: If This Is How They Treat Senator Alex Padilla, How Will They Treat You?:"

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* Here are some ways to help Immigrants and the anti-ICE Protesters:

Immigrant Defenders: https://give.immdef.org/give/545119/#!/donation/checkout
The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org/
National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory
Amnesty International: protect asylum-seekers: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/113080/donate/1
The Young Center for Immigtrant Children's Rights: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/
CHIRLA: https://www.chirla.org/
AL Otro Lado: https://alotrolado.networkforgood.com/projects/63833-al-otro-lado-fund
Mid-South Immigration Advocates: https://miamemphis.org/
"Know Your Rights:" https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights

* The next big 50501 protest is July 17th: https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events

* "Who was Oscar V. Peterson, the man replacing gay rights icon Harvey Milk on a U.S. Navy ship?:" https://www.advocate.com/news/oscar-peterson-replaces-harvey-milk

* "Democrats urge gay Treasury Secretary Bessent not to scrap protections for LGBTQ+ federal workers:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/democrats-eeo-protection-scott-bessent

* "Revenge of Transportation head Sean Duffy, wronged by a lesbian and a gay man: banning rainbow crosswalks:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/duffy-trump-rainbow-crosswalks

* "Justice Department abruptly fires 3 prosecutors involved in Jan. 6 criminal cases, AP sources say:" https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-prosecutions-capitol-riot-trump-bondi-1107441a68cef171dfff4e680e438452

* "Justice Department Hires Infamous January 6 Rioter to Take Revenge:" https://newrepublic.com/post/197516/justice-department-hires-january-6-rioter

* "‘None of us were worrying about this’: Trump’s latest school money move has state authorities scrambling:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/02/trump-school-money-state-authorities-scrambling-00436737

* "Harvard inches closer to losing more federal money after civil rights accusation:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/30/trump-harvard-federal-funding-antisemitism-00432450

* "UPenn caves to Trump and bans trans women athletes, stripping Lia Thomas of titles:" https://www.advocate.com/news/upenn-bans-trans-women-athletes

* "Paramount will pay $16 million in settlement with Trump over ’60 Minutes’ interview:" https://apnews.com/article/trump-media-harris-minutes-paramount-6415042fe910ae60b432dd8c73ef61b2

* "Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for $787M in defamation case over Trump call:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/27/newsom-sues-fox-news-defamation-case-00429168

* "Supreme Court to decide whether states can ban transgender women & girls from sports:" https://www.advocate.com/news/scotus-transgender-sports-ban

* "Supreme Court orders judges to reconsider protections for transgender people in four states:" https://www.advocate.com/news/scotus-erode-transgender-protections

* "Mass. teacher sued after being fired over transphobic posts online. The Supreme Court just rejected her case:" https://www.advocate.com/news/supreme-court-nixes-transphobic-teacher

* "Supreme Court to hear case that could upend campaign finance coordination rules:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/30/supreme-court-nrsc-fec-coordination-limits-00432699

* "10% of new business owners are LGBTQ+ — and they're offering better benefits:" https://www.advocate.com/news/lgbtq-business-owners-report

* "Inside the Dollar General Workers’ Fight for Safety and Fair Pay:" https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-129-summer-2025/inside-the-dollar-general-workers-fight-for-safety-and-fair-pay?

* The Budget Bill has past and Donald Trump is signing it on the 4th of July as if it isn't a terrible and shameful thing that will kill people who voted him so a handful of billionaires can pay fewer taxes.

People die because they won't be able to afford the copays, especially as Trump economic policies kill jobs and keep causing prices to rise.

People die because most of the remaining rural hospitals will close as they need Medicaid money to survive. Slapping a temporary Bandaid on the funding bleed won't save them as the amount is minuscule compared to what they are losing.

They are sacrificing people for the billionaires that bought them.

They are stealing healthcare from 11.8 million in the near future about a third of them children.

3 Million people, 1 Million of them children, will lose food assistance.

They are making the bottom 10% of Americans 4% Poorer.

This is all so they can make the Wealthiest 10% 2.3% richer.

The goal of this legislation is to harm or kill as many ordinary people as possible while ballooning the deficit by 3.3 directly over the next decade by giving tax cuts to billionaires, but more likely 4.45 trillion if one considers things like interest. (Republicans have decided to no longer count the billionaire tax cuts and related interest costs because the real figures make them look bad. Lying that a 4 trillion increase is a $508 billion decrease is better for them politically).

A budget is a moral document. It says what a society's priorities are.

Not all deficit is bad. Deficit to invest in things like education or health or infrastructure is good for obvious reasons. This deficit is entirely about sucking money out of the economy and into billionaire bank accounts. It gives nothing back; it only harms.

* "House passes GOP megabill and sends it to Trump; Hakeem Jeffries delays vote with record-breaking floor speech:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-big-beautiful-bill-house-taxes-immigration-live-updates-rcna215842

* "5 ways Trump's megabill will limit health care access:" https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/07/02/nx-s1-5453870/senate-republicans-tax-bill-medicaid-health-care

* "Why LGBTQ+ advocates hope Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' costs the Republicans in the midterms:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/republicans-pass-unpopular-big-beautiful-bill

* "‘Swag bag’: Trump reportedly won over GOP holdouts with signed merch :" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-swag-bag-trump-reportedly-won-over-gop-holdouts-with-signed-merch-242688069522

* "The backlash begins: Republicans heading home from D.C. face local protests over Trump bill:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/the-backlash-begins-republicans-heading-home-from-d-c-face-local-protests-over-trump-bill-242696261879

* "'The ultimate betrayal': Congressman appalled at Republican colleague's indifference to constituents:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/-the-ultimate-betrayal-congressman-appalled-at-republican-colleague-s-indifference-to-constituents-242698309977

* "‘Really bad’: Ex-Sen. Jon Tester says Republicans can’t defend this bill:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-really-bad-ex-sen-jon-tester-says-republicans-can-t-defend-this-bill-242691141851

* "Here's what Pete Buttigieg had to say about Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' passing Congress:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/pete-buttigieg-one-big-beautiful-bill

* "‘Lipstick on a pig’: Trump, Republicans try to hide ‘terrible’ impact of megabill:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-lipstick-on-a-pig-trump-republicans-try-to-hide-terrible-impact-of-megabill-242728005670

* "'Not hyperbole': Trump’s 'popular' law is actually the most unpopular in 30 years:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-not-hyperbole-trump-s-popular-law-is-actually-the-most-unpopular-in-30-years-242728005885

* "‘Completely beatable’: Dems go on offensive over unpopular Republican budget:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-completely-beatable-dems-go-on-offensive-over-unpopular-republican-budget-242730053840

***I'm leaving in the advance coverage as it details a lot of the harm Republicans are inflicting on America and the world and I'm not up to figuring out what is still relevant and what isn't***

* " Senate Republicans shock the House with a supercharged megabill:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/01/senate-republicans-supercharge-megabill-00435873

* "J.D. Vance Dismisses Kicking Millions Off Medicaid: ‘Minutiae’:" https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jd-vance-dismisses-kicking-millions-medicaid-minutiae-1235376453/

* "Mitch McConnell Says People Worried About Medicaid Cuts Will 'Get Over It':" https://www.newsweek.com/mitch-mcconnell-medicaid-get-over-it-report-2090245

If they live, I doubt they will forget who killed grandma or their kid or their spouse.

Let them eat cake!

Cruelty is the point.

* I'm doing two "What's in the Bill" articles, because while they overlap, they each have things the others don't. It's a big bill. I'm also going to throw in some specific focus articles.

* "What’s in the Trump Tax Bill That Just Passed the Senate:" https://archive.ph/zqSa4

* "Here's what's in Trump's "big, beautiful bill" that passed the Senate:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-in-trump-big-beautiful-bill-senate-version/

* A small piece of good news. Thank you to all who complained to your senators. "Senate drops plan to ban state AI laws:" https://www.theverge.com/politics/695495/senate-drops-ai-moratorium-budget-bill

* "At least 17 million Americans would lose insurance under Trump plan:" https://archive.ph/5qWsL

* "How Trump’s ‘one big beautiful’ tax bill could impact women, children and LGBTQ+ Americans:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/trump-tax-bill-impact-americans

* "How SNAP cuts will disproportionately impact some LGBTQ+ people:" https://www.advocate.com/news/snap-benefits-cuts-lgbtq-adults

* "Gender-affirming care funding ban out of budget bill, but it still will devastate LGBTQ+ people:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/budget-bill-devastating-lgbtq

* "'Why the hell did you vote for the bill?': GOP senator slammed for megabill whiplash:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-why-the-hell-did-you-vote-for-the-bill-gop-senator-slammed-for-megabill-whiplash-242563653797

* "Frost: Republicans short on votes for Trump budget bill as Democrats raise public alarm:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/frost-republicans-short-on-votes-for-trump-budget-bill-as-democrats-raise-public-alarm-242569797709

* "Hey look, an alligator!: Trump, Republicans eager to distract public from bad news budget bill:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/hey-look-an-alligator-trump-republicans-eager-to-distract-public-from-bad-news-budget-bill-242570309875

* "“PORKY PIG PARTY!!”: Musk continues criticism of big, beautiful bill, floats new US political party:" https://www.salon.com/2025/06/30/porky-pig-party-musk-continues-criticism-of-big-beautiful-bill-floats-new-us-political-party/

* "Trump: ‘DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon’:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/01/trump-doge-is-the-monster-that-might-have-to-go-back-and-eat-elon-00434819

* "The deadly 'big beautiful' budget bill will turn America into a morgue:" https://www.advocate.com/big-beautiful-bill-morgue-opinion

* "House GOP struggles to win over holdouts on Trump’s tax bill in late-night session:" https://apnews.com/article/big-beautiful-bill-trump-tax-cuts-3b525482be43fdf956366cebd84dcaac

* "MAGA world figures take aim at GOP holdouts:" https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/02/congress/maga-pressure-campaign-00438192

* "The GOP's massive bill would add trillions of dollars to the country's debt:" https://www.npr.org/2025/07/02/nx-s1-5454598/the-gops-massive-bill-would-add-trillions-of-dollars-to-the-countrys-debt

* "‘Ruinous’: Trump bill ‘screws over his own voters,’ says Hayes:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-ruinous-trump-bill-screws-over-his-own-voters-says-hayes-242631237570

* "Psaki: Republicans will regret passing Trump's bill as Democrats look to reprise 2018's House flip:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-briefing-with-jen-psaki/watch/psaki-republicans-will-regret-passing-trump-s-bill-as-democrats-look-to-reprise-2018-s-house-flip-242636357956

******

* RE: SAVE ACT "Do This Today: Call Senators:" https://solarbird.dreamwidth.org/2036106.html

If these are your Senators, please stop what you are doing and call now:

KELLY (AZ)
WARNOCK (GA)
PETERS (MI)
SHAHEEN (NH)
HASSAN (NH)
CORTEZ MASTO (NV)
ROSEN (NV)

* This one is a super dangerous attack on the judiciary's ability to protect citizen's rights. "H.R. 1526: NORRA of 2025:" https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr1526

* "A Reckless Judicial Nomination Puts the Senate to the Test:" https://archive.ph/d2IAA

* "Trump Officials Rejected Shocking Allegations from a DOJ Whistleblower. Former Colleagues Believe Him.:" https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/02/erez-reuveni-justice-department-whistleblower-00435486

* "Trump’s surgeon general pick criticizes others’ conflicts but profits from wellness product sales:" https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/honorable-mention/2025/trumps-surgeon-general-pick-criticizes-others-conflicts-but-profits-from-wellness-product-sales/

* "Bipartisan bill looks to sanction foreign officials who attack LGBTQ+ human rights:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/lgbtq-human-rights-sanctions-bill

* "Cassidy calls to delay meeting of CDC’s vaccine panel in challenge to RFK Jr.:" https://www.statnews.com/2025/06/23/bill-cassidy-calls-for-acip-vaccine-panel-delay-after-rfk-jr-purge/

* "Sen. Adam Schiff introduces bill to support LGBTQ+ people in starting families:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/adam-schiff-assisted-reproduction-bill

* "A bipartisan effort looks to rectify tax inequities for same-sex married couples:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/warren-collins-bipartisan-same-sex-married-taxes

* "New congressional resolution would make June 26 'Equality Day' celebrating LGBTQ+ victories:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/equality-day-resolution-supreme-court

* "Bipartisan House coalition demands RFK Jr. reverse Trump’s plan to end LGBTQ+ suicide prevention hotline:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/bipartisan-effort-lgbtq-988-line

* "Gay U.S. Rep Robert Garcia elected top Democrat on powerful House Oversight Committee:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/robert-garcia-ranking-member-oversight

* "Democrat Melanie Stansbury triggers Marjorie Taylor Greene into gavel-banging meltdown at House hearing—again:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/melanie-stansbury-triggers-greene-meltdown

* Our job for the next two years is to survive, to build grassroots resistance, to do all in our power to slow the republican Christo-fascist agenda, and to prepare for 2026 in case there is still Democracy.

We are trying to build a good list of resistance resources.

Please add more below if you have them.

* "Take action with Indivisible:" https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/

* Trump 2.0 Indivisible Guide. https://indivisible.org/resource/guide

* "Democracy 2025:" https://www.democracy2025.org/?utm_source=df-ad&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=21912407002&utm_content=721373734297&source=df-ad-gs&gad_source=1

* "Resisting Fascism in 2025 and Beyond:" https://www.prideandpagesbookclub.com/resisting-fascism-in-2025-and-beyond

* If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options for contacting your Congress Critters:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

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

And another: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php

Snail Mail Campaigns: https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/3622760.html

"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/

White house (Possibly Dangerous): https://www.whitehouse.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

This tracks legislation: https://www.govtrack.us/

"The Public Comment Process (+ how to write effective public comments):" https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/781844516804149248?source=share

Run for Something: https://runforsomething.net/

"Vote Smart:" https://justfacts.votesmart.org/

Useful organizing links and resources: https://www.tumblr.com/gwydionmisha/771859083592613888/hater-of-terfs-ive-already-reblogged-a-link-to?source=share

Protests: "50501 Events:" https://www.fiftyfifty.one/events

How to render emergency aid in a riot: https://riotmedicine.net/static/downloads/riot-medicine_a5.pdf

"How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely

"ICE Raids Toolkit: Defend Against ICE Raids and Community Arrests:" https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/

Contains a raid tip hotline amoung other things. "Know Your Rights
LEARN HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY:" https://wearecasa.org/know-your-rights/

* "How, under Donald Trump, we are increasingly becoming unapologetically unapologetic:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/trump-era-unapologetically-unapologetic

* "Number of out elected officials continues to grow, but more needed for equal representation:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/number-lgbtq-elected-officials-grows

* "How dark will our skies be on July 4, 2026?:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/how-dark-july-4-2026

* "Conservatives Are Already Losing Their Minds Over Mamdani’s Apparent Win:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/06/conservatives-are-already-losing-their-minds-over-mamdanis-apparent-win/

* "Trump questions Mamdani’s citizenship status:" https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/01/trump-zohran-mamdani-citizenship-00435613

* "Zohran Mamdani on winning over the Democratic establishment:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-weekend-primetime/watch/zohran-mamdani-on-winning-over-the-democratic-establishment-242444869908

* "Can Zohran Mamdani make his progressive vision a reality?:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-weekend-primetime/watch/can-zohran-mamdani-make-his-progressive-vision-a-reality-242443333702

* "New Texas law will require Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom:" https://apnews.com/article/texas-ten-commandments-law-3f1ea84acd67a028ad9b7c01c3c2368c

* "Federal appeals court blocks Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms:" https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/federal-appeals-court-blocks-louisiana-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-classrooms

* "Iowa now allows anti-transgender discrimination:" https://www.advocate.com/news/iowa-gender-identity-protection-undone

* "Democrats lash out as Legislature bans school clubs that support gay teens:" https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/31/texas-house-tempers-flare-gay-club-ban/

* "How the right-wing media machine turns violence & tragedy into using trans people as scapegoats:" https://www.advocate.com/news/jo-ellis-trans-scapegoats

* "Man shot Idaho firefighters who had asked him to move his vehicle, killing 2, sheriff says:" https://apnews.com/article/coeur-dalene-idaho-shooting-firefighters-024d26274e0faacec1687f6dde789ced

* " 16-year-old girl in critical condition after shooting near Stonewall Inn :" https://www.advocate.com/crime/stonewall-shooting-two-teenage-girls

* CW: Child Death. "The Man Who Unsolved a Murder:" https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/06/public-defense-investigators/

* ":"

* ":"

* ":"

* "Largest U.S. private prison operator faces lawsuit after inmate was killed a day before his release:" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/private-prison-operator-corecivic-lawsuit-inmate-killed/

* "I Spent Over 40 Years Working in Corrections. I Wasn’t Ready for Rikers.:" https://mailchi.mp/themarshallproject/ke745a0zah

* "'Everyone is Welcome Here' signs spark Idaho legal debate:" https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/208/house-bill-41-goes-into-effect-july-1-heres-what-that-means-for-schools-sarah-inama-update-flag-law-in-idaho/277-e24c42c3-691e-4e1f-9709-363414db1e3b

* "Appeals court rules transgender Florida teacher cannot use female pronouns in school:" https://www.advocate.com/news/florida-transgender-teacher-pronoun-restrictions

* CW: Abuse. "The P. Diddy Trial Circus:"

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* CW: Abuse. "Justin Baldoni Obliterated in Court:"

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* CW: CSA, Sexual assault. "Kevin Spacey's arrogant comeback is a gut-punch for survivors like me:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/kevin-spacey-comeback-opinion

* "Stanford Medicine caves to Trump Administration, ends gender-affirming surgeries for youth:" https://www.advocate.com/health/stanford-medicine-gender-affirming-surgery

* "Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down abortion ban from 1849:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-1849-abortion

* "What we know about Georgia woman reportedly kept on life support so baby could survive:" https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/06/24/adriana-smith-baby-georgia/

* "Chinese police arrest dozens of gay erotica writers in pornography crackdown:" https://www.advocate.com/world/china-gay-erotica-writers-arrested

* "U.K. Prime Minister pushes to ban trans people from single-sex bathrooms, sports, and beyond:" https://www.advocate.com/world/keir-starmer-trans-ban

* "Indian court rules trans women are women and ‘legally entitled to recognition’:" https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/06/26/india-trans-women-high-court-decision/

* "South Carolina city caves to Republican attorney general's demands to lift ban on conversion therapy:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/sc-capital-repeals-ban-conversion-therapy

* "Florida judge dismisses case against trans woman jailed for using restroom at state capitol:" https://www.advocate.com/news/florida-trans-woman-restroom-capitol

* "Several anti-LGBTQ+ incidents reported in eastern Massachusetts:" https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/massachusetts-anti-lgbtq-incidents/

* "A man in Provincetown was called a homophobic slur and assaulted. Police need information:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/provincetown-massachusetts-gay-hate-crime

* "NYPD investigating assault, choking of woman after suspects hurled anti-LGBTQ+ slurs:" https://www.advocate.com/crime/nyc-woman-assaulted-antigay-slurs

* "Catholic school fires Louisiana band director after husband's obituary reveals he is gay:" https://www.advocate.com/news/catholic-school-louisiana-fired-obituary

* "Andrew Sullivan represents everything wrong with the gay rights movement:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/andrew-sullivan-everything-wrong

* "How a parade invite became a fight for LGBTQ+ visibility in Appalachia:" https://www.advocate.com/voices/strawberry-festival-west-virginia

* "Trans teen’s chess win in Germany prompts backlash:" https://www.advocate.com/news/german-transgender-teen-chess

* "‘I Feel Like I’ve Been Lied To’: When a Measles Outbreak Hits Home:" https://archive.ph/1vL8M

* "At least 47 dead in central Texas in devastating flash floods, over two dozens remain missing, officials say:" https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/texas-hill-country-severe-floods/

* "Woman transforms clothing waste into building materials to solve 'global south housing crisis':" https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/housing-from-clothing-waste-texiboard

* "Who was Jimmy Swaggart, the late, anti-LGBTQ+, disgraced televangelist?:" https://www.advocate.com/news/jimmy-swaggart-anti-lgbtq-televangelist

* So Saturday, I wrapped up the aggregate, then started posting more links in the hour or so before bed.

Livia, who is really not doing well with all the disruption went on the lemon laptop instead of around it, as she normally would. sat on it about 30 seconds, then jostled it jumping over the back.

It black screened. I’ve tried everything. I can see the Lenovo logo on restart, but it just gives flash of the lockscreen before blacking out. Tech support hung up on me in the middle and went home on Sunday.

So far I’ve invested about eight hours trying to resuscitate it. Two friends have tried as well.

All the links, all the data are locked in there.

I still have the refurbished lap top, which is what I’m writing on now. I hadn’t the heart to try to start over, especially while rebooting Edward Laptop over and over, etc.. It’s harder to work on this one for a variety of reasons.

If Edward is really done, I will start again. On top of the not enough sleep. (I got four hours today as it seems the sofa cushion foam may be deteriorated to the point that the metal will grind my hip every time I try to sleep). On top of having to use all the spoons every day trying to cope with construction hell. On top of every other thing.

Restarting all the news set up things on this computer means I will be even slower on news, etc., likely for a few weeks. It takes a while to migrate functions and re-establish work flow. This computer is a little slower and also isn’t quite up to hosting modern waterfox, which means figuring out how to do things without.

This month has been an absolute nightmare.

* Monday: The fire inspector came along with the nice man who did the fire upgrade part at 10:30. They were gone at 10:37. The fire inspector praised the guy who did the installation, which made me happy. He had this warm, gentle vibe and a soft spoke competence that reminded me a lot of my beloved late Uncle, though they looked nothing alike.

After I ate, I started in with the phone. new Millennial was having trouble claiming their home care aide hours (They worked them, but the whole system is super glitchy). Today is the last day to fix it. New Millennial is getting most of my hours. we are going to try to hire someone to do the heavier lifting jobs once a week, like taking out the trash with the rest of the hours. Because of the employment change over, I needed to make sure the trouble wasn't to do with that. *digits cruciform it is sorted now*

Then it was back to trying to ave Edward Lap top. I and New Millennial and

steampunktoy put in about nine hours total trying to save him Saturday and Sunday. I went back to try to trick tech support AI into letting me talk to a live human. Apparently the trick is just to say nonsense until it gives up. I got really good results reading to it from the Dracula Daily Tumblr feed which was weirdly way faster than just repeated things like live agent and advanced technical support and I refuse to do that. This took a few tries to get it right. I wasted one by foolishly cooperating and that just kicked it into sales mode. I got through and the phone cut out on our end during transfer to advanced technical support. Whee!

I fucking hate GenAI I do not like this outwit the sphinx aspect of everything nowadays. Oooo! I wonder if the tumblr trick works on Social Security chat bots! Let's hop I don't have to find out this year.

The third tech support guy walked me through some things, but odds are it's the same hardware problem from when Lenovo decided to enshitify. They wanted me to mil it back, which I don't know how to do and don't have the box for and the diagnostic is over a hundred and fuck that. I got him to suggest I take it to Best Buy.

So I guess I'm doing that in a car that now smokes if I take on the highway for repairs of an unknown amount.

It is still better than buying a new computer, I suspect.

Fuck! I got this new in January.

We can't afford this monetarily. I can't afford all these spoons. I got six hours of sleep today and four yesterday and I feel like I'm getting beaten with baseball bats in my "sleep" every night. I've started dreaming of scorpions which I just realized are likely symbolic reinterpretation of the damned sprinklers that are the reason they are doing this terrible thing to me and the cats. Like, every time I see the scorpion in my dream, I think: that is a weird pattern for a scorpion's collaboration, yet strangely familiar. It's the sprinkler head abstracted. It's kind of beautiful.

Tavy clings and claws and bites. Livia panics if she can't instantly see me. The tiny meeps of terror break my heart. I am literally just on the other side of the debris, but if that's not where she suspected, she makes those lost kitten sounds.

On the upside, the aggregate scaffold transferred fine. It usually does even without the fail safe of it being open somewhere else to check against, but now and then I end up with an empty page, so I held off opening it until I had no choice. I have no choice.

As I said in the Sunday entry, starting from scratch on news links on a different computer is a pain in the ass, and I'm a browser down, so I'm focusing on essential action item type things and the like right now.

I am so sorry. We have hit my too many things broken limit.

* UPDATE 3:44PM

Squirrel was able to take over Contractor watch so I went out into extreme heat and traffic to go to an in person repair.

It turned out to be a stupid easy fix. One they could have very easily talked me through at the official Lenovo technical support. One that only someone who knew about all the stupid ways enshittified Lenovos Black screen without warning would have known. Like someone at Lenovo tech support, one would think, but they were so fixated on making me reset or mail it back for hundreds of dollars of repair.

One none of us could have guessed, not even someone clever as Newest Millennial or

steampunktoy.

Apparently enshittified Lenovos like to change their settings on their own to things no one would want so why is black screen even a setting, I must ask? Why? Why program a computer to black screen itself? WTF, Lenovo!

The car made it home. Let us hope it starts again.

I dropped off the half dead TV in the place that used to take them, but apparently just stopped. (It was on the way back from TV repair and needed doing. The lady took pity on my barely mobile and tempting heat stroke self with a car more than a decade older than her assistant, I'd guess, and took the TV anyway. "Just this once." I promised never again.

Let us hope the other ancient second hand tv lives a good long life as we can't throw them out either.

Everyone was so terribly kind.

* Wednesday: Not surprisingly, the pain was Extra. Still no contractors today. I did get a call from the citty program. My vote was today and the City is going ahead with the fixes.

I am fascinated to see how this works out with HOA Hell Project.

* Thursday: I slipped out while the contractors were at lunch for produce. I figured they likely wouldn't come today as I hadn't heard construction all week, and I wanted to slip out while the temperature was still reasonable and before the after work crowd came shopping for long weekend provisions. I was late getting back, as I zipped down to the library while i was out which meant I could hit discount grocery. This was a good call as yoghurt and mushrooms were on sale, and not just the normal mushrooms, but two kinds of fancier ones that i like for soup and pasta.

I hope it's all right.

It broke my heart a little when I took the pride flags down as this is likely the last time I'll get to have them up. They were so cheerful, you know. I am fighting the pride ban. Of course I am, but management is utterly unreasonable on all accounts.

Despite the heat, the pinwheels in my patio garden have been going gangbusters since yesterday. It is still and oven down town of course, but I live in a wind tunnel, that funnels the breeze out of Alaska, which helps some.

Monday and Tuesday the sky was uncanny valley empty again. I should be used to this as climate change has been doing this half a decade now.

Today though? Normal for July wispy clouds high up and headed off the Bay towards the mountains as it should be.

* "100 pics from NYC Pride Parade 2025 that prove Pride is still a protest :" https://www.advocate.com/news/nyc-pride-2025#rebelltitem1

* "Yes, The Elsbeth Season 2 Finale’s Ramen Knife Is A Real Thing You Can Actually Make:" https://screenrant.com/elsbeth-season-2-finale-ramen-knife-real-explained/

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

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* "United States Disappeared Tracker:" https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/danielleharlow/viz/UnitedStatesDisappearedTracker/Map

* "Introducing Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network:" https://aflcio.org/2025/4/16/introducing-rise-federal-workers-legal-defense-network

* Here are some ways to help Immigrants and the anti-ICE Protesters:

Immigrant Defenders: https://give.immdef.org/give/545119/#!/donation/checkout
The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org/
National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/en/nbfn-directory
Amnesty International: protect asylum-seekers: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/113080/donate/1
The Young Center for Immigtrant Children's Rights: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/
CHIRLA: https://www.chirla.org/
AL Otro Lado: https://alotrolado.networkforgood.com/projects/63833-al-otro-lado-fund
Mid-South Immigration Advocates: https://miamemphis.org/

* Want to help Nathan Sage against Joni Ernst? https://www.sageforsenate.com/

* Want to help Dr. Annie Andrews beat Lindsey Graham?" https://secure.actblue.com/donate/loc_annie_fr_txt_q22025?refcode=LOC_RTL_FR_2025.05.29_Lindsey-Bad-Job_B1_C1_Pros_N_Peony_RG-T1&amount=5

( More Links Underneath: )

torachan

We were expecting it to be crowded today because of the holiday weekend but it was actually one of the least crowded days we've ever experienced at the parks.

( Read more... )

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a little snacki snacc

October 2024

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torachan - Daily Happiness
china_shop - Me-and-media update
k2daisy - Life six months later
neonvincent - Unused image for Super Awards post
rachelmanija - Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger
mergatrude - Light Entertainment
mrkinch - 7/7/2025 Tilden Nature Area
torachan - Daily Happiness
neonvincent - Rejected video for supermarket post
torachan - Daily Happiness
crantz - I need to put this feeling into a drug and huff it
coffeeandink - Ghost Quartet (Green-Wood Cemetery, 7/28/25)
mrkinch - 7/6/2025 Loop Road and Laurel Canyon
musesfool - don't let this fading summer pass you by
neonvincent - Postponed image for Super Awards post
anghraine - Tumblr crosspost (4 February 2025)
umadoshi - Weekly proof of life: mainly media (shocking everyone)
torachan - Daily Happiness
gwydion - 7/1/25 - 7/5/25
torachan - 2025 Disneyland Trip #48 (7/5/25)

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Page generated Jul. 9th, 2025 08:12 am

back to the present time

back from a fantasy

Reading

Daily Happiness

Me-and-media update

Life six months later

Unused image for Super Awards post

Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger

Light Entertainment

7/7/2025 Tilden Nature Area

Daily Happiness

Rejected video for supermarket post

Daily Happiness

I need to put this feeling into a drug and huff it

Ghost Quartet (Green-Wood Cemetery, 7/28/25)

7/6/2025 Loop Road and Laurel Canyon

don't let this fading summer pass you by

Postponed image for Super Awards post

Tumblr crosspost (4 February 2025)

Weekly proof of life: mainly media (shocking everyone)

Daily Happiness

7/1/25 - 7/5/25

2025 Disneyland Trip #48 (7/5/25)

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October 2024

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