A few days later Roach woke up as usual ready to go to the café, but the flat was silent. Usually Lucius was awake before him, singing and dancing or doing something loud of some kind, but not today.
Roach got up and tiptoed to the kitchen, feeling completely out of his depth in the silence, and there was a note on the table. He ripped the envelope open and read:
Dearest Jake
I've eloped with Pete! It's been a whirlwind romance! Don't worry, I’ll be back but we're on our honeymoon now,
Lots of love,
Luci xxx
Roach’s world shuddered on its axis. For so long Lucius and himself had been each other’s rocks, never letting each other down. But now Lucius had done so. How dare he! Roach wondered who to turn to. Who else was a rock for him to lean on? And there was only one answer: Izzy Hands. So he quickly texted him:
Lucius has eloped with Pete. Help me, I don’t know what to do.
Check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.
And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.
...on the way over Aunt S said, “The people we’re about to meet may tell you shocking things about me.” “Shocking things like how you’ve aided your niece-nephew in perverting the social order and defying nature itself?” I asked. “Oh, is that what you’re doing?” Aunt S said. “The social order seems intact to me. And if it’s your goal to defy nature, you might have to put in a bit more work.” [p. 172]
A young person -- 'I'd rather be Victor than Victorine' -- is evicted from the family home, and moves to Paris with their Aunt Sophie. In a run-down boarding house they encounter art student Julien, who is also Julie and who doesn't want to be trapped into being 'one or the other when I've always been both'.
I need to get outside on Friday after work because it'll cool off. Wait, I'll need to pick up Gracie after her spay. But I could get out afterward.
Wrote myself a note that the cats went into the basement while I was gathering recycling. I need to get a litter box and water dish down there (ordered).
Well, hell. One of the new alarms won’t let me set the hour. I might have to return it. I’m using it as a backup right now. I figured out how to set it. You stop selecting the alarm button. Their instructions are not clear.
The dogs are flaked out on the bed.
Woke up on time. Maybe it was the alarm or Gracie barking at the alarm. Got the recycling out.
I’m showered and dressed and it’s still early for the tree guys. Hmm, I’m wondering if I should lie back down and talk to them later. They sent a message that I don’t need to be home, so yes. I sent a message to make sure that they get all the roots, and I’m going back to bed.
Overslept work by 45 minutes, sigh. I shut off the alarm and lay back down for "5 more minutes". Oops. The tree guys are hard at work.
Oliver was rolling around on the futon and got stuck between it and the wall with his legs in the air! Dignified, not! Now he's flaked out in the window. I don't know why he isn't boiling hot.
I've decided to get acrylic glasses for everyday use, and a set of nice glasses for company. Not that I'm inviting anyone over anytime soon. I bought eight highball glasses with a swirl in them (I got the idea to look at the picture of the glasses next to the plate and those looked best), four "old-fashioned" glasses (probably enough because I don't drink) and the acrylic glasses.
I made a stupid mistake at work. I hate making stupid mistakes. I can't help but think that this is karma because I used to be arrogant as fuck before I got sick. But the annual statistics are done and dusted!
I went down the basement stairs to the landing to see what the tree guys had done. They did a good job. I came back in and Bella made a fuss over me. I told her that she was very brave to do without me for one second :)
Bella is having a sit-down strike over kibble. She wants two cans of wet food like Gracie, who gets it because kibble gives her diarrhea. So Bella doesn’t eat it and Gracie does, which defeats the purpose of this whole enterprise. Bella could afford to lose some weight, so I’m not worried about that aspect of it. I guess that I'll give up on the kibble and give it away.
The doggos didn't let me nap well because they were play-fighting. I'd tell them to stop, and they'd come over and lick my face. Not restful. As a consequence, I'm tired.
I came downstairs because of the heat, and Bella is curled up next to me, groaning because she's tired.
I got my raspberry bushes! I'll need to get out and plant them this weekend.
I bought compression socks for the flight, and added some Grape Nuts Flakes to get overnight delivery. They'll keep.
I had a moment of vertigo sitting down. Maybe I need water.
I was looking at a dog bed on Facebook, but a large is $100. I don't want to spend $100. Someone is selling a humongous dog bed for $50. I might get it. It's not very attractive, but it's just for the stairwell. I found a cheaper dog bed on Amazon. I know that you get what you pay for, but it won't get used much.
I read an article suggesting using Acorns or Stash to squirrel away money for travel. (They save money by rounding up purchases.) I might do that.
Sigh. Bella thinks that the freshly dug and spread dirt where the stump was is for her to dig in. She was not listening to my "no".
I think that maybe I'll work on packing tonight. I have the mother lode of charging cables that I need to organize. Plus some clothes. And I need to set the lock on my suitcase. And find and fill some extra bottles of shampoo and conditioner because I'll be gone long. I'm trying to decide whether to take the solar-powered charger. It would be nice to have at the beach, but on the other hand, I don't want to flash the fact that I have a solar-powered charger at the beach. I found another one that I’ll take. Aargh. I need a paperclip to set the Roam luggage lock, so I just ordered paper clips. I guess that I'll set it tomorrow. Hmm, I need to snag a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to stick in my backpack in case something happens to my luggage, but I'll do that right before I go. Actually, I could stick it in the carry-on bag, along with my sandals. And maybe one of my swimsuits.
I tried a Vanilla Bean Skinny Mix in some water, and wow, is that delicious.
I was going to nap, but I realized that I need to feed Gracie now because she needs to fast for her spay tomorrow. I’ll just sit here for a moment.
Bella is playing scary watchdog. She’s a pushover, but she does sound fierce (and large). Gracie’s yaps, not so much.
The dogs are fed. I’m soaking the cat dishes. Oliver likes to jump on my back with his claws out, and I hissed at him. I told him that I would feed him anyway because I’m nice. I should make some food too. We’re all fed now. Nap time.
Bella stole a can of cat food. She hides under the bed with it because she knows that I’ll take it away from her, comes out and sees me, and goes back under the bed. Goof. I found out where she was getting them from and hid them in a recycling bin. I need a way to stash them in a cabinet. Must rearrange the kitchen.
Slept until 12:30 AM. I'm going to find my new vibrating alarm clock and go back to bed.
Interests/Hobbies outside of fandom: My Star Trek clubs and Ghostbuster club, conventions, cosplay, traveling, photography, rock painting/hiding/finding.
Friending policy: Just have stuff in common with me, and let me know before adding.
Where to add you: Just here, I don't use my LJ anymore. I also got FB and Insta if you wish to add me their. Also got fanfiction and a03 if you want as well.
What you do in fandom: Graphics and talk about/review them.
Other fandoms you like: Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings/Superman, Batman, Deadpool, X-Men, Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Back to The Future, Fast and The Furious, Jurassic Park/World, Ghosbusters, Star Trek, 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lone Star, Shadowhunters, Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Psych, Teen Wolf, Pokémon, Doctor Who, Arrow, The Flash, Superman & Lois, Angel, Buffy, Torchwood.
Other comms you like: My 20in20 comms I have.
Anything else you'd like to share: Nothing right now.
1. The first day of the new store's soft open was a huge success. We didn't advertise it at all, but the store was very busy all day (only open from 10-4) and we made over three times as much as the first soft open day of the store that opened in December, so hopefully that is a sign that this store will be a success.
2. Look at Tuxie in his little house! He doesn't sleep here at night and doesn't ever seem to use it during the day, but sometimes he likes to go in there in the early morning between waking up and leaving wherever it is he sleeps at night and coming up to the porch for breakfast.
I feel like when I'm writing, there are two zones. The first is more plodding and difficult, where I'm using prompts of where I want to go in the story (such as an outline) and [I'm] sort of blind emotionally, if that makes sense, and it's very slow going. The writing really suffers as a result. The second is the true zone, where I've really percolated the story/universe in advance, and I'm so deep in the backstories, 'verse, and intent of the overarching plots that the writing kind of just rolls out of me, and individual threads I'm not even consciously aware of pop out and intertwine in a really kinetic way. That is the gold standard for me, but so much harder to achieve. I really wish I knew how to create that zone more readily, but it appears to be an almost accidental thing that occurs when I'm really into a story idea.
mific went on to say (paraphrasing, don't want to steal her words) that sometimes it's the story idea that gets her there, and sometimes it's the headspace she's in that makes the words really flow.
What gets you into the right headspace for a good zone? One where the words come easily and you feel you're doing the kind of writing where synergy really happens?
Since I don't really drink & don't keep any alcohol at home, instead of the big gin & tonic I could've used after work today, I drowned in pics of the 种地少年.
Fair warning: There will be at least another picspam or two because (a) I need this distraction, oh do I need it so much, and (b) their concert stage costumes this year ohmygod... (and should Lu "thirst trap" Zhuo get his own picspam?? 🤔) ( This is not even the tip of the iceberg )
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
Today was going to be me, Mom and my Sister in law going out to Bacon Jam a new restaurant in McDonald. We get there and the power is out in the town...are you frakking kidding? We even go to another restaurant a few miles out, still out. Why? No clue, the weather is fine and it hasn't been hot enough to brown out.
And in talking to SiL about the Wheeling Italian fest and the ONLY parking for 100K in people is one parking garage, even arriving early isn't going to much help as the garage is tiny plus it's meant to be nearly 100 this weekend. Hard pass. I'll go to the Italian fest in Columbus again over Indigenous Peoples day.
So many celebrities have gone this week, Malcolm Jamal Werner, Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Mangione and Hulk Hogan and I'll be honest I had a poster of Hulk back in the 80s but I haven't paid the least bit of attention to wrestling/wrestlers in 30 years so today I learned how much people hated him and why (yeah I see their point. Sigh, yet another one I liked turned out to be an asshole) Even read something Andre the Giant had to say about Hulk. Leave it as it was not pretty. This is why I don't invest much into celebrity.
But have an Ozzy song that seems to be where I am right now.
This is brand new community. I'm debating it (not sure i need another one on writing but it might be interesting. I'll at least know several of them) fan_writers A community for meta about writing.
I figure if several people on my flist aren't already members, they might be interested paradisediner a place to chat about kpop
Along the lines of the first rec we have writethisfanfic Helping fanfic writer hopefuls.
And for those who love writing original characters into fanon there's fandomocweekly A weekly prompt community for fandom OCs
It led me to listen to a lot of their other songs. I can't listen to that one without thinking of Poirot, though (not a youtube rec). Start at about 10 seconds in
How did youtube know that I started listening to this song (I've Endured) in the mid-1970s, when I first started working for Rounder. Ola Belle Reed was recording number 0021. These folks weren't even born then. Different continent, too.
It irritates me that she called it traditional. It was by the Carter Family, whose original version is much better, IMO, but they aren't around to raise money for hurricane relief in western NC. It wants me to login to google to donate to the gofundme? WTH? I might figure out some other way to donate - FEMA isn't going to do any follow-up.
Is it just musical style, or does youtube know that I grew up in the same state? (about 250 miles east, though).
Speaking of youtube knowing things, an ad for a clothing catalogue that was mentioned just once, very briefly, at knitting group showed up. The friend's dress that prompted the conversation was nice, but out of peevishness I am not going to look at the online catalogue.
Not sure I would have believed it, if I hadn't seen it.
I keep saying I'm going to go see this-and-that movie in a theater when it looks good, and then I usually forget about it, but I really think this one will get me out there.
I might be misremembering, but is there a way to use spoiler tags in DW entries? I can't find anything in the FAQ and searching leads me to a lot of years-old possibly out-of-date info. But I thought for sure there was a tag for them here.
If not a natural built-in tag, what do people usually do when they want to spoiler cut something? Just make a regular cut for it? Or use code to have a highlight-to-read effect?
I swear to god, I used to know this. I stop posting for one whole year and I forget how everything works here, geesh!
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, July 24, to midnight on Friday, July 25 (8pm Eastern Time).
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 05 secrets from Secret Submission Post #969. Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ]. Current Secret Submissions Post:here. Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
I've been spending a fair bit of time on the phone with Lisa dealing with things. That's the internet phone she has, which she was able to plug into the wired router in her apartment in Munich, and means she has a US phone number and can make and receive calls there. We also got her a simple flip phone, identical to mine, and we know that it worked because she called me on it from Denver Airport on the way out. But it has never connected since she got to Munich, even when I added on a Verizon international service plan. So today we spent time trying to sort this out. We ended up with me on my personal phone to Verizon on speaker, while getting Lisa on my work phone on speaker, and putting the phones next to each other so she could talk to the tech support guy.
As Lisa expected (but we had to have support go through their entire support checklist), there was no SIM card in the phone. There is one in my identical phone, but not in hers. Apparently it will work as a phone on the Verizon network domestically without one, but this does explain why it wouldn't connect in Munich. She'll have to hunt up a place to sell her a SIM card with a prepaid plan for the rest of this trip.
Why the Verizon store didn't put a card in the phone, I don't know. I wasn't paying attention, and when the phone worked when we tested it in the store, I figured that was good enough.
She did have a planned trip to Berlin for which I had paid on my credit card, but when she showed up at the hotel, despite the room being in her name and my notes to the hotel explaining that they should charge me, they refused to let her check in. She had to go back to the apartment in Munich on the next train. If they charge me a broken-reservation fee, you can bet I'm going to protest that charge. And for the rest of this trip, we'll need to be extra careful about confirming that the rooms for which I paid -- and checked the "making the room arrangement for someone else" box on the forms when possible -- are actually being charged correctly. I know the apartment in Munich is paid for because the charges have hit my card.
Did a little grocery shopping but the major grocery shopping trip isn't till next week, I'm making lemon cupcakes for a party I'm going to on 8/2 and brownies for a friend's birthday on 8/5!
Hogan made many questionable facial hair decisions throughout his life.
There are those who say you should not speak ill of the dead. Those people are stupid, because there are a lot of really, really bad people who are dead. Caligula? Dead. Hitler? Dead. Ted Bundy? Dead. Henry Kissinger? Dead, though he certainly took his sweet ass time with that.
Hulk Hogan is also dead now, of a heart attack, at the age of 71. He, too, was a really, really bad person, and we are going to speak ill of him — because there’s not much else to say, is there?
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Hulk Hogan Was A Racist
Back in 2015 — in fact, 10 years ago today! — an extremely racist rant he went on in 2006 about his daughter, Brooke, dating a Black man was published by Radar Online:
“I mean, I don't have double standards. I mean, I am a racist, to a point, fucking n*****s. But then when it comes to nice people and sh*t, and whatever. […] I mean, I’d rather if she was going to f–k some n****r, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall n****r worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player…I guess we’re all a little racist. F–king n****r.”
That was not “a little racist.” That was “a lot racist.” That was “there’s literally no way to spin this other than it being a rant that came out of the mouth of a person who is extremely, extremely racist and has given much thought to his racism over the years.”
The person he was ranting to, by the way, was Heather Clem, who was the wife of his friend Bubba “The Love Sponge,” and also the woman he was fucking behind his wife’s and her husband’s backs in the sex tape over which he famously sued Gawker.
Hogan was fired from the WWE and wiped entirely from their website after the audio was published.
“WWE is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide,” the organization told US Magazine in a statement we can assume they’d never release today.
While Brooke Hogan initially wrote a poem in a misguided attempt to convince the world that her father was not, in fact, the vile racist he, himself, admitted that he was, she ended up going “no contact” with both him and her mother about eight years ago. Good for her.
Hulk Hogan Was A Scab
In an interview about nine years ago, former wrestler/former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura told Graham Bensinger that he would never be friends with Hulk Hogan again. Why? Because Ventura was trying to start a union, to get wrestlers the same protections and ability to collectively bargain that athletes in other sports have, and Hogan went and ratted him out to management.
It turned out, Ventura said, that Hogan was getting paid more than all of the other wrestlers combined — and clearly wanted to keep things that way.
Now, we don’t know whether it was for this particular reason or not, but Princess Bride star Andre the Giant, who was also a wrestler (and a total sweetheart), also hated his guts.
Now, I am not one to defend releasing people’s sex tapes — and even in the long ago world of 2016, Wonkette was on the right side of that. It’s a horrifying thing to do and the fact that we took it so lightly as a culture for a minute is incredibly shameful.
That being said, his $100 million Peter Thiel-funded lawsuit against Gawker for publishing his sex tape with Heather Clem was some bullshit. It wasn’t about just compensation, it was about Thiel wanting to shut down Gawker permanently, supposedly because many years prior, he was outed in a blind item published on the site. Personally, I’ve never bought that. I think he wanted Gawker shut down because he didn’t like the site’s politics — particularly the way it had very much helped reignite enthusiasm for unions — and the fact that it was so popular.
And damn, we really could have used it during the Trump years.
I could go on, but I won’t. In sum, Hulk Hogan was a shitty person, and now he’s dead. We’re not sad about it.
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I remember, a long time ago, sitting outside, with a couple of my filking friends, talking about our dreams of making albums. We were thinking of cassette albums, then, it being before the technology for CDs became accessible for people like us--though with kids and jobs that weren't making us rich, and with nobody in the Midwest doing filk albums, those dreams weren't likely happening any time soon. But still, what songwriter doesn't dream of putting out an album or two?
And I had plenty of songs for an album or two, mostly songs that I've never recorded, though a few are on albums compiled from open filk circles at various conventions. I've got those cassettes somewhere (I still haven't found everything that got moved when we had more than one roof-leak insurance claim in the same year, some years back, and stuff got moved out of the wet very fast and randomly). I accepted a copy of each cassette in lieu of the first few dollars of royalties, knowing that the cost of the cassette was more than I'd likely ever earn from those recordings, and was very happy to get them.
It's a very different world now, with affordable microphones and recording software, and no need to have bulky tapes to record on and huge mixing boards and all that other stuff you used to need to make records. And I have a decent microphone and a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and so I've been able to make my own recordings, and some of them are available on Bandcamp. (https://wylddandelyon.bandcamp.com/)
Others have been shared on Patreon, for paid members, as a heartfelt thank-you for their support.
But back to my story. After a couple of people recently told me they missed hearing some of my earlier songs, I got the idea to make my next short Bandcamp album using some of those very first songs I wrote, and calling it Time Capsule--what if I had recorded the songs back then? What might that album have looked like?
I can't sing with my 20-year-old voice any more. I've grown older, of course, but I've also learned a lot about singing and vocal technique--and my asthma is properly treated these days too. My voice is actually, I think, stronger and more reliable than it was back then. And I'm having to relearn chord patterns, and to try to remember the details of what I was doing to accompany those songs back then--intros and outros, and flourishes--stuff that always lived only in my memory. And memory isn't perfect, even when it's not all dusty and faded.
But it's happening! I found a perfect old picture of me to use, and a wonderful writer-and-artist friend made it into the cover you'll see soon. I gathered my lyric sheets for those early songs, and had too many, and limited myself to before the turn of the century and still had too many songs for just one album! So I picked 10, which pulls it out of the "short album" category, but, assuming I can get them all finished and polished, will make me very happy. And I've been practicing and tuning autoharps and guitars very carefully, and recording.
And best of all, when I talked about this soon-to-be digital album, and played some of those songs at the local housefilk, those same two friends I was dreaming with on that long-ago afternoon were singing along with me, remembering old harmonies or improvising new ones, and they both kindly agreed to be my backup singers on this album!
This makes me very happy. Very happy indeed.
And it reminds me of one of the things about creative work: If you keep on dreaming, and working, and sharing your dreams with your friends, dreams can, indeed, come true. Often not in the way you first imagined, and never as fast as you imagined, at the start (or almost never) but perseverance and being good to your creative friends and acquaintances can, in the end, help a dream become real.
So, look for Time Capsule, by Wyld Dandelyon and friends (And Friends! Squeeee!!!!), on the next Bandcamp Friday--which is August 1! (So soon! So much to do still!)
And in the meantime, if I don't notice you trying to reach me, it might be because I have my phones and computer all on mute because I'm recording, or mixing, or very intently listening, trying to make the recordings as good as I possibly can before the first.
Columbia in March agreed to a bunch of demands from the administration, including a ban on masks at protests, expanding the number of campus security guards and allowing them to arrest students, and making sure professors in the Middle East studies program wouldn’t say anything that might sound pro-Palestinian. Big surprise: The administration still didn’t release the embargoed research grants.
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And now, having been successfully extorted once, Columbia thinks this time might stop the extortionist from asking for more!
In a statement, Columbia said the $200 million payment, over three years, will “resolve multiple federal agency investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws,” over bogus administration claims that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies “discriminate” against white people. A separate payment of $21 million will supposedly make similar investigations by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission go away.
In return, the statement says,
a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 will be reinstated, and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored.
That will include the resumption of most grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services, which the Trump administration cancelled illegally anyway, but thank you for restoring them, Sir, if you do. Changes to disciplinary policies and limits on students’ rights will remain in place, and the university will enshrine in its policy a definition of antisemitism that the administration demanded, in accordance with a Trump executive order.
Columbia’s acting President Claire Shipman — the last one resigned a week after the university capitulated the last time; Trump also forced a University of Virginia president to resign for “woke” — said that the settlement “safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration.” Why, Columbia doesn’t even have to admit to any wrongdoing, although it did agree to establish a “jointly selected independent monitor who will assess the implementation of the resolution” and make sure Columbia keeps its nose clean:
The University will provide regular reports to the monitor, documenting its adherence to the agreement and its continued compliance with applicable federal laws and regulations pertaining to admissions, hiring, and international students. These provisions reflect Columbia’s broader commitment to transparency, institutional accountability, and sustained progress on our commitments.
Nothing in there about the monitor having the ability to make sure the Trump administration keeps its end of the deal, because you don’t go putting conditions on a king. Trump said on his fake Twitter (archive link) that it was a great victory, and never mind that “no admission of wrongdoing” stuff, either. He crowed that Columbia had
agreed to pay a penalty of $200 Million Dollars to the United States Government for violating Federal Law, in addition to over $20 Million to their Jewish employees who were unlawfully targeted and harassed.
None of which Columbia actually said, but truth is what Mad King Donald declares it to be. He followed that by threatening that his war on higher education is far from over, although he appears to have left out some words:
Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming.
Those institutions sure are upcoming, you bet. Then the MAGA Chuds complained in the replies that no taxpayer funds should go to Columbia or any other university, because leftists hate America and medical research actually kills people with vaccines.
In case you were wondering whether this is a good deal or more appeasement of an autocrat, we’ll point out that Larry Freaking Summers considers it an “excellent template” for future agreements between the Trump administration and “other institutions including Harvard.”
Also too, here’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon, completely forgetting the official script about how Columbia supposedly had to be brought to heel to protect Jewish students:
McMahon called the agreement a “monumental victory for conservatives who wanted to do things on these elite campuses for a long time because we had such far left-leaning professors,” and also we need to get rid of all those foreign students who pay the full price of tuition and subsidize scholarships for Americans. (She did, at the very end of the clip, say that campuses are no places for “left-leaning riots and antisemitism,” so good save there, an A-1 response.)
In any event, now that Columbia has ceded the Sudetenland, we’re certain that Herr Trump will be satisfied and all will be well.
Now the only thing the university has to worry about is the lawsuit against it filed today by Columbia Sportswear, claiming that the university is infringing on the clothing company’s trademark by selling clothes with just the word “Columbia” on them, not “Columbia University,” thus violating a 2023 agreement between the two Columbias.
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A large number of people seem to feel an overwhelming urge to call other people's phone numbers for the purpose of selling them something. In recent decade(s), they use an auto-dialer, and size their systems so that they are likely to have more victims answering their phones than bots or call center humans available to provide the spiel to the victim. Hence the commonest experience on answering the phone is probably dead air.
I get it. It costs them essentially nothing to interrupt millions of people, some out of a sound sleep, and they might possibly get one sale - or successful scam - out of doing this, so their behaviour is good capitalism in action (sic). Whereas regulating them out of business would be a terrible infringement of their freedom. And as for jailing their CEOs, well CEOs shouldn't face more than monetary consequences even if they knowingly sell products that kill some of their customers.
My fellow Dreamwidther lovelyangel put it well, saying that she feels besieged. I never realized what my current feeling was! But no, my room has been suffering, for one. I'm working extra hours this week, mostly four-hour shifts, five days straight, because apparently I'm the only evening cashier that didn't ask for this coming weekend off. Which is unfortunate, because my supervisor told me about that just as I was about to ask for that weekend off. I had four days in a row off last weekend--Saturday through Tuesday--but I only had one day--Monday--where I didn't have stuff to do all day, and even then I somehow ended up going out to run errands with my mum.
Saturday I did a defensive driving class in a town nearby. The local police department/highway whatever was running the show and we were using their track, but it was on some sort of military base, so we had to go through security and all! It was really freaky. But now I can say I've been on a military base! Basically, it was teaching us panic braking, how to react if we spin out on ice, etc. Fun but tiring, especially given the fact that it's stupidly hot. If anyone reading this lives up north where it's not that hot--APPRECIATE IT!
Sunday, Blue and I hung out and honestly I can't remember what else happened! I want to say we watched a movie but I can't remember which one.
Monday, I did errands and worked some on thinning out the clothes in my closet, since I have way too many.
Tuesday, after the library, my mum and I had a quick lunch at home and then Blue came over! We watched The Beautician and the Beast--a really good movie! And then we played Wii Music and swiped on my dating apps together--but the dating thing is a story for another time.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get on HRT and on ADHD meds as soon as I can, I have to work a lot, I have to figure out when to hang out with my friends (which is like putting a damn jigsaw puzzle together with all our schedules), and I have to get my room in good shape, thin out my closet, and start packing and buying textbooks for school. AGH! I need a few days to crash out, honestly. I thought summer was supposed to be relaxing! But I can never get in bed until near midnight and so I'm tired all the time. I think I might have to work less next summer... Oh, and I'm also trying to coordinate my study abroad, which I really want to do, but I haven't done my application yet because of time! Maybe I work on that this afternoon--if I have time. Or maybe I just veg out and/or nap. God knows I need it.
Okay, just a bit of dating--some guy came through my till last night to ask me out! He just asked if I wanted to go out for coffee--I guess he found my cute and asked me out on a whim. I've never actually been asked out before! Well, I'm talking to this guy on-line and we've agreed that when I'm in his city we're going to go on a date. Which brings me to my next thing--I'm talking to too many guys--it's overwhelming! But I think I have a better crop than last time this happened, at least. Still, even if most of them are nice, I just... don't find most of them all that attractive? Maybe I'll have better luck when I'm abroad and hopefully in a big city. This small-town lack of options is not cutting it for someone whose dating pool is already small to begin with since I'm trans.
So yes, I'm quite besieged. God grant me a better week next week--and a heck of a lot more rest!
Secret Relationship is way darker than expected. I don't want to reveal much, but I would say this is more a thriller than a romance. The reason why I chose to see it is double: the actors are quite handsome, and it's an adaption from a manhwa, that usually are really romantic stories. Therefore the surprise when I realized the romance is some of background to the real story. Anyway if you want something of completely different, this is the choice. HEA. You can see it on GagaOOLala and IQIYI. Heat Level: 3/6.
Heat Level:
1/6: glances, caress, hugs, no kisses
2/6: kisses, closed mouth or camera angles
3/6: full kisses, clothes on
4/6: full kisses, some clothes off, hands above the waist, pants stay on
5/6: most clothes off, they have sex, but it’s masked, no sexy sounds
6/6: full nudity mostly hidden by camera angles, they have sex, sexy sounds
In which a nice lady named Timoclea helpfully demonstrates what to do with those who try to fuck with a woman’s bodily autonomy.
Jonathan Mitchell, architect of Texas’s “rat out your abortion-having neighbor for fun and prizes” law and body double for Robert the Haunted Doll, is back on his bullshit and representing yet another terrible, terrible man in his lawsuit against a California doctor who allegedly mailed abortion pills taken by his girlfriend.
In a wrongful death (extreme eyeroll) lawsuit filed this weekend, plaintiff Jerry Rodriguez accused California-based Dr. Rémy Coeytaux of twice providing pills his girlfriend — who is named in the suit, but whom we will only refer to as “K” — took to “abort his unborn child.” Rodriguez claims Coeytaux violated not only multiple Texas laws regulating and banning abortion, but also the federal Comstock Act. You know, the 1873 law that bans sending naughty things, like pornography and birth control, through the mail. The law that anti-abortion rights activists have been hoping can be used to bar doctors from sending abortion pills through the mail.
Thus, the lawsuit was filed in federal court rather than state court, a move Mitchell is likely hoping will allow him to freely sue doctors in other states for providing abortion medication to women in Texas. It was also filed as a class action suit on behalf of “all current and future fathers of unborn children in the United States.”
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According to Rodriguez, K was happy to be pregnant with his child, but her husband, from whom she was separated, was not happy about it at all. So he ordered the pills from Coeytaux and convinced her to take them. Then, several months later, she was pregnant again with Rodriguez’s child (and happy about it!), but was once again convinced by her husband to take the pills.
But later in January [K] killed Mr. Rodriguez’s unborn son with abortion pills that were illegally obtained and provided by [husband]. This time [K] took the abortion-inducing drugs at [husband’s] house in Galveston County. [K] proceeded with this self-managed abortion even though she was nearly three months pregnant and even though Mr. Rodriguez pleaded with her not to do it. After the abortion, [K] texted Mr. Rodriguez and told him that she had to cut the baby boy’s umbilical cord and bury him (although she did not say where).
Rodriguez says that K is once again pregnant with his child and he is real worried that the same thing is going to happen again.
So far, the cases brought by men who are angry about women refusing to have their babies have not been successful. States like New York and California, where abortion is legal and there are shield laws in place to protect doctors and patients’ privacy, have refused to comply. In February, one Texas court did fine Dr. Maggie Carpenter, a New York based doctor who had allegedly prescribed abortion pills to Texas women, $113,000. However, so far, they have been twice rebuffed by New York county clerk Taylor Bruck, who has refused to violate the state’s shield law just to please Ken Paxton.
“In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office. Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation,” acting Clerk Taylor Bruck said in a prepared statement.
However, the fact that this is being filed in federal court — a federal court presided over by a judge who is a Trump appointee with a history of anti-abortion-rights rulings — it’s possible that they’ll have a better chance of at least getting it to the famously conservative US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and then onto the Supreme Court, which has likely been their goal all along.
And even if it doesn’t get that far, the lawsuit on its own will likely have a chilling effect on doctors’ willingness to prescribe these pills to women in abortion ban state.
Should all of these courts find in their favor, it could mean the end of shield laws and the end of telemedicine-provided abortion pills. That’s scary, as it would leave women in abortion states with far fewer safe options when it comes to ending an unwanted pregnancy. Also scary is the fact that K is still with this man and once again pregnant with his baby. If she has it, if she keeps it, she will be tied to this monster for the rest of her life.
More than anything, she needs to get the ever-loving fuck away from this man. Also the other man. Also, Texas. This is a dangerous, vindictive trash bag of a man and no one should ever, ever have any of his babies or have sex with him ever again.
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Occasionally having a lap full of melted cat. It does make it hard to
type. And sometimes I get nipped.
Finally getting around to writing a Thankful Thursday
post. Not sure what happened there.
Getting back on my prescription-strength iron pills. I can't
prove that they're doing much, but I think some of my numbers
are a little better. I'll find out next week in my appointment.
Doctors' appointments by phone, and a vet who makes house calls.
I spent all day yesterday avoiding people and it was great. Until last night. I was watching the baseball game and it was extra innings and the teams were swapping the lead back and forth, so quite riveting, when Martha stopped in. I was not in a Martha mood and I wanted to watch the baseball.
And then Martha started talking about Hazel and how I need to let Timber Ridge take over what their sons can't/won't do. In Martha world, this is like a switch. In the real world this is not going to happen ever. "Well, Hazel needs to... " "Timber Ridge should..." While telling me that I need to be careful about doing too much.
I do love Martha and most days, I'm delighted to have her input. But, last night was not most days. So I missed some key baseball action and went to bed grumpy. Oh and also, I ordered caramelized onions as a side with my dinner and they left them out and replaced them with spinach! In what fucking world is spinach an acceptable substitute for caramelized onions?????????
But, today I'm all better.
The shades installer is supposed to come today to rehang my window shade so that I can, once again, open the window. His office says he'll be here sometime between 12 and 4. Based on the last time, that means I can expect him about 4:30 or 5. Oh, wait, the woman who called said 12-4. BUT the email says 12-1 and the text just says 12. Soooooo arrival time is not this morning but any-time-is-a-good-guess this afternoon. I'm not looking forward to dealing with him because of the sloppy job he did last time. But I am looking forward to having my shades fixed.
And while I'm being snarky and bitchy... did I say I was all better this morning??? ... my tendinitis is back in my right elbow. I felt it a little last Tuesday when playing volleyball. I mean to wear my elbow brace this morning and left it in my closet. So I played with my right arm behind my back. I used it for a couple of shots but mainly used my left hand/arm to play with. I was actually kind of surprised at what a nice job it did. It certainly earned its keep. BUT my Pixel watch was exhausted after 2 hours. It detected 2 car wrecks and 3 falls. I kept having to stop and tell it that I was fine. I suspect I have now fucked up their detection data but good.
Next up, I need to get dressed and then go down to the front desk and pick up the copies of the Timber Ridge Times for our floor and distribute them. John has done it for a long time but I told him I'd take over. They usually have them out and ready on my way back from volleyball but not today. No prob. I can use the steps.
The Americans released from Venezuela in exchange for Venezuelans sent to CECOT in El Salvador. Convicted triple murderer Dahud Hanid Ortiz is circled. State Department photo.
In exchange, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro released 10 American citizens he had been holding in hopes of having some leverage for some kind of deal with the US. Or at least nine of the Americans had been imprisoned as leverage; Maduro also sent along Dahud Hanid Ortiz, a man with dual American and Venezuelan citizenship, who was serving a 30-year sentence for the brutal 2016 ax murders of three people in Madrid, Spain.
See? Trump was right! Foreign countries are sending their criminals here! It’s just that he’s the one bringing them in, on ICE’s chartered Gulfstream jet.
Also, let’s not forget how Trump lied at every opportunity that Joe Biden was allowing all the worst murderers and criminals into the US, when the reality is that Trump actually released violent crimers from custody, both during his first presidency and now. Trump abandoned previous administrations’ focus on arresting and deporting violent criminal aliens, and instead wants to scoop up and deport everyone without papers. The easiest way to do that is by going after Abuela and the folks who attend their court appearances. That actually makes America far less safe.
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Your Tax Dollars At Work, Paying For Torture
As of the weekend, the men the administration whisked off to CECOT with no due process, accusing them without evidence of being Tren de Aragua gang members, are now no longer in prison. We suppose now there can’t be any contempt of court charges against administration officials for ignoring every last court order in the case, since no matter how illegal the flights to El Salvador were, the men are now free, just suffering PTSD.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., posted on social media Friday night: “We have been in touch with Andry Hernández Romero’s legal team and they have confirmed he is out of CECOT and back in Venezuela. We are grateful he is alive and are engaged with both the State Department and his team.”
So once again, we see that Trump’s Justice Department was lying all along when it told federal courts that the people it sent to CECOT (and paid El Salvador $6 million to imprison) were no longer under any US jurisdiction, and would be in the torture prison for the rest of their lives — a fate they deserved for their many crimes, none of which the administration ever identified.
Now that they’ve been released, in a deal partly negotiated by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, several of the former prisoners have told reporters about the torture and abusive treatment they faced while in CECOT. Their accounts match what Kilmar Abrego Garcia said about the prison after he was brought back to the US to face fake human trafficking charges.
In a Washington Post story (gift link), three of the former prisoners told reporters about what one of the men described as a “horror movie” at the prison. One, Julio González Jr., said he had agreed to be deported to Venezuela, but instead was sent to CECOT without being told that’s where he was being flown. On arrival, they saw blood on the floors, presumably from other men who’d gotten off the plane before them. They were ordered at gunpoint to kneel with their foreheads pressed to the floor.
A guard wearing a hood told the men, “Welcome to El Salvador, you sons of bitches,” although the Post decorously hides the bad word with dashes because it might offend readers — some of whom explained in the comments that the men deserved to be tortured because of their heinous crimes (again, most were never charged with anything).
The three men described regular beatings with wooden bats, being cut off from communicating with the outside world, and collective punishment for minor rule infractions.
Joen Suárez, 23, was taken several times to a dark room known as La Isla — or “the island” — and beaten, kicked and insulted. Angel Blanco Marin, 22, said he was hit so hard he lost half of a molar. He asked for painkillers and medical attention but was given none for more than a month.
All three of the men, now with their families in Venezuela, denied any gang connections, and neither US nor Salvadoran officials have offered any evidence to show they’re gang members or “terrorists.”
At CECOT, the detainees said, Venezuelans were held in cells of nine to 15 people with metal benches for beds — thin mattresses were brought in for photographs and then taken away — and water buckets for drinking and bathing. “It looked like a cage,” González said.
On the first day, Blanco vomited and had no way to clean his shirt for several days, he said. Eventually the detainees said they were given soap and toothpaste, but not regularly.
The prison has no outside exercise yards, and only a few cells even got sunlight through windows. When the prisoners attempted a hunger strike, the guards abused them more, and some prisoners had rubber bullets and plastic riot-control rounds shot at them. González said that if they asked for a lawyer, guards would tell them, “That word doesn’t exist here.”
Remember, plenty of MAGA folks think that would be a great idea here, too, because all undocumented migrants are murderers who never granted any due process to their victims. That’s also the position of the Trump administration any time they aren’t actually speaking to a judge.
In a statement, Homeland Security’s Goebbels clone Tricia McLaughlin refused to comment on the accusations of torture or mistreatment. Instead, she clicked the heels of her jackboots together, heiled Trump, and repeated the bullshit lie that the US had
deported “nearly 300 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists” to CECOT, “where they no longer pose a threat to the American people.”
“Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members. […] We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”
Did anyone get back to her to ask her to explain what “victims” she was talking about, considering that the administration has yet to link the men with any specific alleged crimes? WaPo didn’t say. Seems like a missed opportunity for at least a follow-up question.
God Bless Trump For Getting Our Ax (Or Machete And Iron Bar) Murderer Back
In exchange for the men who’d been sent without due process to CECOT, then miraculously released in defiance of how that was totally impossible, Venezuela released 10 Americans it had been holding, most of them on made-up charges because the Venezuelan government is just as honest as Trump. They included “37-year-old Lucas Hunter, whose family says he was kidnapped in January by Venezuelan border guards from inside Colombia, where he was vacationing.” The guy was kite surfing. Also brought back to the US was Wilbert Castaneda, who was arrested in Caracas last year and initially accused of trying to foment a coup against Maduro, although the Venezuelan government later dropped that claim.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took a moment away from his side gig of bringing Donald Trump Diet Cokes and hailed Trump for returning the Americans, in a statement that without the least bit of irony condemned the Venezuelan government for having “arrested and jailed U.S. nationals under highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process.” He crowed that “Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.”
Not mentioned by Rubio was the teensy detail that one of those brought back to the US was convicted triple ax murderer Dahud Hanid Ortiz. Ortiz, a dual citizen of America and Venezuela and a US Army veteran, was sentenced last year to 30 years in prison in Venezuela for attacking and killing three people with an ax in a Madrid attorney’s office in 2016. Ortiz committed the murders in revenge for the attorney’s having had an affair with Ortiz’s wife. The lawyer, Víctor Salas, wasn’t in the office at the time, but Ortiz, posing as a client, “beat and axed a lawyer's assistant (Maritza Osorio), an employee (Elisa Consuegra), and one of the clients (Jhon Pepe Castillo) to death in the office” (Google translation). Then he set the office on fire and fled, eventually returning to Germany, where he lived at the time. Ortiz was arrested in Venezuela in 2018, but jurisdictional squabbles delayed his prosecution; after four attempts to try him, he was finally convicted by a Venezuelan court in 2024.
We should note that while Spanish-language media reports say Ortiz committed the attacks with an ax (“hacha”), the New York Times, working from court records from Spain and Venezuela, reports that he killed one woman with a “large knife or machete” and that the other two victims were “likely killed with an iron bar.” Shame on Wonkette for its sensationalist headline.
The English edition of the Madrid paper El País reports that when Venezuelan Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello met with the former prisoners from CECOT, he told them, “We handed over some murderers for you,” although as of blogtime, Ortiz appears to be the only murderer sent to the US. The Times says it’s “not clear if he is free or in U.S. custody,” leaving Salas, the lawyer Ortiz targeted a decade ago, in fear that the killer will come after him, telling The Times, “I am completely defenseless right now. […] I believe Dahud has taken advantage of Venezuelan corruption and American negligence.”
Giselle Caso, who described herself as Ms. Consuegra’s best friend, said family and friends were appalled to see Mr. Hanid Ortiz in photos released by the State Department on Friday, smiling in civilian clothes, appearing to be prepared for a life of freedom.
“We want to know: Under what terms was this man released?” she said. “Is the United States going to make him serve out his prison term?”
“This is not a political prisoner,” she added.
El País adds that Ortiz’s ex-wife told German media that German law enforcement is working to make sure that he won’t be able to return to Germany if he’s let loose in the US. She also said,
“There is a well-founded suspicion that the man’s lawyer in Venezuela intentionally provided false information by not presenting him as a convicted murderer, but as a political prisoner or even a U.S. spy, with the aim of including him in the prisoner exchange.”
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The kiskas have baskets & baskets of toys, but the only one they care about is Scrunch, a distinctly unprepossessing proto-rodent with weird blue fiber tendrils.
Every morning begins with a hunt for Scrunch. Where did they hide him last night? In the Patrizia-torium, in the bathroom, in the closet, downstairs? Scrunch turns up all over the house because when Icky is not on the premises, the kiskas scamper madly up & down the stairs and hang out in the living room.
I wish I could figure out the secret to Scrunch's appeal. It is a great mystery.
In other news, yesterday morning was difficult because the night before my computer charger abruptly gave up the ghost. (My computer battery has been telling me for months now it needs to be serviced, but me being me, I have been ignoring it.)
A computer charger is nothing, right? $25 bucks. A 30-minute drive to Best Buy at the Middletown Galleria.
And I absolutely knew it was the computer charger.
But (again me being me), I drove myself to the verge of a nervous breakdown by imagining, What if it isn't the charger? What if it's the computer? (USB ports, some motherboard mojo, something.) What if Computer Hub in New Paltz can't fix the computer, what if all my credit cards spontaneously stop working and I can't buy a new computer, what if the collectively-minded Cornell professor shoots me an email—On further reflection, Patrizia, I have decided you are a complete asshole—and I am forced to live in thrall to Icky for-fuckin'-evah, what if a meteor hits the earth—
Brian was one of my grounding rods. Without Brian, my anxiety is a volatile compound.
And the thing about this kind of anxiety is that it's so ridiculous, you can't really talk about it. You have to hide it. Though it seeps out, of course: When I drove to Best Buy yesterday, I was driving erratically and almost got into two accidents.
Thing about Brian's death, I suppose, is not just the death of an immeasurably dear friend but also the sheer unexpectedness of that death.
One morning you are shooting the breeze about how best to impress a Gardiner Bakehouse audience with your impressive storytelling talents at the open mike, then the next morning, the recipient of your charming windiness has toppled head down onto his kitchen table, never to rise again. Does Not Compute.
The hypervigilance of the abused & neglected child.
If something happens that you have not foreseen and prepared yourself for, the whole infrastructure crumbles.
###
Came home. Remunerated. Chatted with Neighbor Ed for a bit. Chatted with my friend Tom whose medical crisis has had a happy ending. (I never asked what the medical crisis was: I figure if people want you to know about stuff like that, they'll tell you.)
I'm so glad, I said. Just lost one good pal, don't wanna lose any others.
I hear that-I’ve lost a couple of pals/work mates in the last week, Tom said.
And proceeded to tell me about a guy he knew who'd just commited suicide in the Grand Rapids, MI, airport parking garage. Crazy! In the midst of a late life divorce, between jobs, but the craziest part was that the guy was a hardcore Christian, used to travel around doing revivals in a family gospel group.
And there was absolutely no one he trusted enough to confide his despair in.
Life can be really hard.
And we are the people on this planet for whom life is easiest.
Still, when it comes to buying a cake, sometimes you've got to grab the bull by the horns.
(Just don't grab the other end.)
See, I'll bet you dollars to donuts:
... that some of you are going to get wrecks.
You may think you have all your ducks in a row:
(or maybe to be rowed...)
... but let's face it: There's a good chance the baker's ...
... a poo ant short of a picnic.
And they might get your cake ...
... bass ackwards.
I mean, does a bear ...
... sit in the woods?
(Aw, Pooh.)
;)
Look, you're probably never going to get the baker to eat crow:
So don't make a tempest in a teapot!
(Actually, don't make anything in this teapot.)
After all, you've still got a cake, and maybe the manager will mark it down.
So rather than look a gift horse in the, uh ...
... gaping mouth nozzle of despair?
... just enjoy your cake.
I think Shakespeare put it best:
"That which they call a rose by any other name...
"... still looks like meat."
Thanks to Scott D., Deanna C., Laura M., Wolfie W., Anna M., Autumn J., Reba S., Jesea J., Lana H., and Maria V. for letting us have their cakes and read them, too.
*****
P.S. If you need a drink after those cakes, then I have JUST the game for you:
The Huffman family, from their now-deleted YouTube page
President Donald J. Trump would like everybody to ignore those boring old Epstein Files, so hey, how’s that peace he made between Russia and Ukraine going?
Not great! Especially for one Derek Huffman, 46 and a father of six, who migrated to Russia earlier this year from Texas with his wife and their three youngest children. They were seeking a better life, meaning one with no rainbow flags, books with two daddies, or drag queens pouring pitchers of bottomless mimosas. And now Derek’s in the Army!
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You might be wondering how he got there! Huffman was one of a handful of Americans and Canadians who move to Russia every year with poor-to-nonexistent Russian language skills who got persuaded by God and/or online Russian propaganda that the West is a sinking, sinful cess-hole. Once in Russia, the refugees from woke fill YouTube channels with vlogs of propaganda for the Fatherland formerly known as the Motherland, documenting themselves doing butch stuff like farming, pooping in outhouses, and shopping for Chinese power tools, and gush in interviews on state television about how grateful and hashtag-blessed they are to be away from the “LGBTQ indoctrination of kids.”
The Russian government even allotted land to build a safe-space village outside of Moscow for Americans fleeing “liberal gender norms,” though the government withdrew from the project after Huffman and one other family were the only takers.
Huffman believed in the promise of Russia so much that he even joined the Army there, so he could get citizenship faster and without passing the language and Russian civics and history test, believing for some reason that he wouldn’t be sent into combat. He’d hoped his welding skills could be put to use making weapons to drop on Ukrainian maternity wards, or his vlogging skills would get him a job as a war correspondent.
He also thought that he was only signing up for a one-year-tour. But oh baby, there’s no one-year tour in Russia! And either because the Russians deceived him (they would never!) or because his Russian language skills were bad, the Russian Ministry of Defense sent him directly to the front lines with barely any training and all of it in Russian, to serve a combat tour of indefinitely, according to his wife DeAnna. Full cultural and language immersion!
“He feels like he’s being thrown to the wolves right now, and he’s kind of having to lean on faith, and that’s what we’re all doing,” she said on their YouTube channel, HuffmanTime.
Since then, there have been no new images or videos of Mr Huffman. The family commented on their YouTube channel that he was “doing fine”.
However, a link on their channel, which has since been deleted, directed users to a Telegram group titled “Save that little girls”.
Created on Sunday, the group contained one message: “We are asking the United States government to save this family,” along with a photo of Mrs Huffman and her daughters crying in the street.
It is unclear if the family created the group. The Telegraph has contacted the Huffmans for comment.
Also deleted, Patriot missiles going directly to Ukraine. Trump will be now selling, not giving, American weapons to NATO countries to pass along, at some point, after the details of the deals get finished, no big hurry, not like it’s life or death or something. And remember those extra sanctions Trump said Russia should get after Putin ignored the ceasefire ultimatum Trump gave them? Would you believe he’s chickened out yet again?
Just like he has with Russia in every single encounter, ever since they meddled in the 2016 election to help him. Flashback to when he himself acknowledged that they did that!
Jeffrey Epstein had some interesting ties to Russia, including a possible spy who took money from him for “female empowerment” and hung around his mansion.
Sorry, we got boring there for a minute! Anyway, the Senate, in some rare bipartisanship, was all set to pass new sanctions on Russia. But then yesterday Trump told the Senate to back off with that so he could have even more time to sweet-talk Putin. He’s just a sucker for Putin’s love, like Teena Marie. Or for his kompromat!
Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Turkey for their third round of talks, but Russia says not to expect any “miracles,” and is keeping on at bombing civilians, even targeting children with drones at playgrounds, hospitals and on the street. Because they are desperate, evil, and losing, weaker than ever, holding less Ukrainian ground now than in 2022.
So, sounds like Derek Huffman’s tour of duty is going to be a long one, or a short one for very bad reasons. (A fake news making the rounds yesterday said it was “confirmed” he’d already been killed in action. That does seem to have been a fake news, and if he had been, it would be nothing to laugh at!) Hopefully it will end better for him than it did for Michael Gloss, the 21-year-old son of a CIA official who signed up to fight for Russia and died within months, or Russell “Donbas Cowboy” Bentley, the former Texan who joined the Russian army and then got tortured and killed allegedly by Russian forces who thought he was a spy. Then they blew up his body.
Sometimes it does seem to turn out for expatriates, though. Remember those Canadians, the Feenstras, who fled Canada with eight of their kids because of the woke pride flags, and had to take down some of their complaints about having their bank account frozen?
PREVIOUSLY!
They’re still alive and posting, and daddy Arend is building a barn, and complaining, now that the government is not helping him buy a hay baler.
Not very communist of them.
But here’s a tip, don’t believe everything you slooshish on the Internet, and if the Russian government ever hands you a contract, and you don’t read Russian, don’t sign it. Or do, because maybe the reason God called you to Russia is because He hopes to see you sooner! Or to haveth thou serve as a warning to others. Who are we to say?
Every 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/podfics/fanart/fanvids/fancrafts/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.
Hey, y’all see that Tulsi Gabbard press conference yesterday where she said she gave AG Pam Bondi a criminal referral to prosecute Barack Obama for aggravated whatever crimes her guru’s toenails told her Obama did while she was monchin’ on ‘em, allegedly?
Or did y’all see how Gabbard said she has new Hillary Clinton Facts to share, and it was all absolutely desperate bullshit, but the true takeaway was that Tulsi still REALLY thinks Hillary is a total cunt and she is absolutely NOT over how Hillary called her all those mean names a long time ago?
And pretty much everything she said was Russian propaganda manufactured directly in the bowels of the Russian intelligence services, because that’s apparently where Russia’s girlfriend Tulsi gets her information?
Yeah us neither, but speaking of changing the subject entirely, HEY HO, DONALD TRUMP OFFICIALLY ALL OVER THE EPSTEIN FILES, BITCHES!
How nice of the Wall Street Journalto confirm that right at that exact moment Tulsi was up there in the White House babbling Russian Duolingo lessons about Hillary and Obama prepared exclusively for her by the GRU!
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This reporting, which surprises nobody, nada, says that way back in May, not long before Elon Musk tweeted that Trump was in the Epstein Files, Bondi sat Trump down and told him his name came up “multiple times” in the Epstein Files. They told him that those files were full of “unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past,” per the WSJ.
Which sounds to us a bit like that time James Comey had to gently explain to Trump that the FBI had received a dossier of raw intel alleging that the Russians had evidence that he likes pee stuff.
Anyway, Bondi and pals also told Trump that they weren’t going to release any more Epstein Files, because there was personal, identifying info about victims in there, and also child pornography.
Which sounds reasonable, but it strikes us that if “presence of child pornography” wasn't really closely linked to “presence of Donald Trump,” then couldn’t Bondi have MacGyvered together a plan to let us all know Trump was TOTALLY EXONERATED from being an absolute fucking pedophile?
And wouldn’t Trump have been jumping up and down for Bondi to do that?
But maybe that was not an option that was open to Pam Bondi.
And maybe that was not an option that was open to Donald Trump.
This fact from the article jumped out at us:
FBI Director Kash Patel has privately told other government officials that Trump’s name appeared in the files, according to people close to the administration.
Oh no! Is Kash secretly working for Hillary Queenton????? Also, is the FBI director not qualified enough to do his job to keep a fucking secret? Or is he only telling people he really wants to really impress, by showing them how “on the inside” he is?
Anyway, so this reporting definitely tells us one other major thing, namely that Trump lied when a reporter asked him about Bondi briefing him on the Epstein files:
The reporter asked, “specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the files?” and he responded, “No, no, she's—she's given us just a very quick briefing.” Then he claimed the files were created by Democrats.
Lie lie lie lie lie. And again, if he had been TOTALLY EXONERATED, wouldn’t he have wanted us to know?
Also, the WSJ included this little fact about FBI Deputy Director and former right-wing podcaster Bing Dong-gina or whatever his name is, who has been SO whiny about how this whole Epstein thing has gone down:
Bongino has told colleagues that his association with the administration’s decision to keep the files private has eroded his credibility among the base of support that fueled his rise as a successful podcaster and media personality on the right, according to a senior administration official.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. He was upset he didn’t have “credibility” with his “podcast audience” anymore. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Anyway, also yesterday, a judge told Pam Bondi to fuck off, that they could not release “grand jury transcripts” about Epstein to the public, which was always a distraction ever since Trump ordered it, because the bulk of the evidence they’re holding isn’t “grand jury transcripts” and they know it.
So that is the news about that!
To finish where we started, do go back and read Tulsi Gabbard’s list of demands for Hillary Clinton from back in the day, that shit was hilarious and we had almost forgotten. Also Heather Cox Richardson has a nice little summary of how Tulsi Gabbard — Russia’s girlfriend, and they are monogamous — literally read Russian propaganda created by Russia’s intelligence services from the White House podium yesterday.
Because man, that traitor and her Cruella de Vil streak are not working for us.
Also, if we were Donald Trump we’d be getting more and more suspicious of what JD Vance talked to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch about when he sneaked out to Montana to visit them in early June. How is the Wall Street Journal getting all this crazy information about the Trumpstein files?
More shoes dropping on Donald Trump’s dick today, we bet!
OH LMAO SPEAKING OF did y’all see “South Park” last night?
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