LEGO Set I Need, Barbarians, Ivy Fail, etc.

Margaret Hamilton has died. 

No, no, NOT our beloved Wicked Witch. She moved on to Oz absolute eons ago — in 1985 at the age of 82.

I’m talking about Margaret Hamilton, the amazing computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program. She’s now gone at 90-years-old.

You’ve just gotta read this tribute to her at MIT News (not paywalled). It’s simply fascinating. If nothing else, you’ve just GOT to read the story about the “the Lauren error” on the Apollo 8 mission which led to “defensive” programming, the practice of building software that could anticipate or fix errors on its own. 

Over two decades at MIT, Hamilton forged new paths in computer science and engineering. Her groundbreaking work included leading the team that programmed the first computers that took humans to the moon. (source) 

In 2016 President Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom saying, in part:

“Her software architecture led to giant leaps for humankind, writing the code that helped America set foot on the moon.”

Remember when that award meant something and went to people who totally deserved it? You know, pre-Pedo.

Hamilton has her own official LEGO figure in the Women of NASA LEGO set. I WANT this set!
~~~
How to pronounce of Hurricane Isaias: 
 ee-sah-EE-ahs (or ees-ah-EE-ahs), with the main stress on the third syllable (ee-sah-EE-ahs).

Apparently Governor Ron DeSantis is very proud of his unwillingness to learn to pronounce the hurricane’s name. Okay buddy, sure. I didn’t go to Yale and Harvard like young Ronnie and I don’t have hearing like him either (which would make knowing how to pronounce unfamiliar words MUCH easier... ya know?) BUT I was able to do a quick search on my whizbang computer machine and found a phonetic transcription. 

You’d *think* with his big important Ivy League degrees he’d know how to do that too. I guess Ronzo is trying to play the down home, folksie, racist, guy-you’d-have-beer-with card like his fellow Deep South politico, Senator Foghorn Leghorn of Louisiana (magna cum  laude from Vanderbilt, JD from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Civil Law with first-class honors from the University of Oxford). That schtick must really work on the rubes in Florida and Louisiana. How embarrassing for them. DeSantis isn’t even good at it. He and VP JDouche obvs went to the same strip mall Dale Carnegie Training knockoff. JDouche clearly flunked out of the course.

~~~
Cassowary? How the fuck are they not classed as dinosaurs? I believe I met one or three of these when I was hanging at gay discos back in the '70s. They were FABULOUS!

Vampire squid — not a true squid, not an octopus. They’re the sole surviving member of the ancient order Vampyromorphida. Somehow related to squid and octopuses —cousins maybe? How about vampires though? Do vampire squid drink blood, turn into bats, have an aversion to sunlight? Nope. the name MAY be due to their appearance — their dark, reddish-black coloration and cloak-like webbing — very Dracula-ish.
~~~
Just in case you missed the memo — public executions aren’t punishments for crimes, they’re propaganda. They’re a warning. This could be you, if you fall out of line. 

Pat Bagley

The last public execution was the hanging of Rainey Bethea — a Black man convicted of raping a white woman — in 1936.

Roughly 20,000 people gathered in the western Kentucky city of Owensboro, where workers had built a gallows near the riverfront, according to NPR station WKMS. People celebrated with "necktie" parties the night before and sipped soft drinks at the scene in what attendees and historians describe as a festive atmosphere.

"They sold sandwiches and they sold Coca-Colas, and you'd have thought it was a big picnic or something," attendee Bill Shelton recalled in a 2013 oral history interview with the Daviess County Public Library. (source) 

Public executions are carnivals for twisted, racist savages, mutants, thugs, and smooth brained, failed wildebeest impersonators. 

They’re a way to rouse the basest, most primal instincts of the worst amongst us. The MAGAts will be thrilled to itty-bitty bits by this. When Nidal Hasan’s head and heart explode, millions of white men (and I use the term “men” loosely), who can’t remember the last time they could raise the flag without serious pharmaceutical support, will all simultaneously shoot fireworks of jizz across their bedroom/TV room ceilings. This includes the dickless wonder Secretary of War Crimes, who seems to always be trying to prove he’s a big, manly man and not a complete drunken, limp dicked failure.

Republicans — now bringing America live-streaming executions into our homes! This, don’t forget, is the party that proudly proclaims itself pro-life.

How soon will the GOP be broadcasting lynchings, witch burnings, child sacrifices?

The United States — we are nothing more than a completely barbaric hole of greed and depravity.

VOTE, goddammit, VOTE! 

Need Chocolate NOW

I’m tired of all this adult shit. If I have to be a grown up why the purple glitter soaked fuck doesn’t everyone else have to be one? Huh? Answer me that!

Yesterday I had to go into my bank to get  my new debit card. Why? Mine expired at the end of September. Doesn’t the bank normally mail those out a week or two before your card’s death date? Sure … usually … but the mail can’t exactly be trusted right now, can it? Trump and his renfieldian henchmen are fucking the postal system to Hell and back in advance of the midterms. Of course they are. Fucking Republicans can only win by cheating and lying their duplicitous, criming asses off.

Jen, who is my power of attorney, contacted the bank — even went in and talked to them. This was in mid September. She explained that my card had not yet arrived, that it would time out shortly, and I needed to pay bills using that card. Could they give her — again, she's my power of attorney — the card as it’s enormously difficult for me to come in to pick it up myself and the postal service doesn’t seem to be functioning. They said no — they could only hand the card to me but they would send it again “expedited.” 

Expedited
     adjective 
accelerated or sped up : promptly executed

I would have thought, when they used the word “expedited,” they were saying that the card would be sent Priority Mail® or Priority Mail Next Day®. Ya know, so I’d get the card next day or, at most, within two to three days. Nope. Eight days later I’d still not received the card AND I’d been dinged with late charges on two of my bills.

Yesterday, Ten put my wheelchair into Godzilla (our awesome eMINI) and hit the bank. Now, remember that I’m deaf. For communication, I’m using Ten’s phone which has the Live Transcibe app downloaded. I’m in a wheelchair because my stupid left foot’s still fucked up. We were directed to a woman at a desk. From a quick MAGAt-brained assessment I probably appear to be an easily managed, quickly dispatched nothing — a real pushover. 

In the past, I’ve always received excellent customer service at my credit union. Ultimately, that was the case yesterday as well BUT first:

• This woman told me I should continue to wait for my supposedly expedited card to arrive. Ah, NO. (Do I look like I was born yesterday?! No, I do not.). 

• As I was beginning to explain to her what I needed, she interrupted me. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I strive to be clear, concise, and direct in my communication. I’m not throwing an excess of illustrations and clarifications into business interactions. If I could have bullet pointed the convo I would have. How did I I respond to her tragic  customer service fail? I went full metal school marm, sternly saying, “Do NOT interrupt me. I’m speaking.” She actually, seriously flinched and then got one of those “I’m trying to recover my superior position” side smiles on her face. You know, the one that says to the other mean girls “she’s crazy but I have to humor her because I'm on the clock.”

• When I told her I wanted her to print out a card for me (a service they offer and have done for me in the past at NO charge), as I’d no faith the second card they'd sent would arrive before I incurred even MORE late charges, she said they could BUT it would cost me that $10. WHAT? I stopped her right there and said “No, I don’t want to pay $10 for a card that should have arrived three weeks ago.” Possibly I said that I wouldn't be paying that tenner — I was pissed. She waived the fee.

The ordeal ended fine. There was no blood on the floor when Ten rolled me out. I just felt bad for having to get so stern and fierce with this person who, despite their age (mid 50s or thereabouts) and presumed experience, was absolutely clueless at problem solving on the simplest level. Truly logic impaired. Was she more of a twat because she saw me as an old deaf, disabled woman? Did she think I was someone who could be easily fluffed off? Or is she this half-assed with all her customers?

FYI, with age and disability, I’ve become, if anything, more formidable than I was in my feral 20s. Possibly I should not be let out of the house and allowed to talk to strangers any more.

One Season Wonders

WHY are my absolute favorite, most beloved, much needed for max chillage teevee shows always cancelled after just one measly season?! Hmmmmm?! Are there sadists in Hollywood and the UK? I’m asking you?

I mean, just feast your eyes on this list of fabulous escapist storyline treasures

Kaos  
… discord reigns on Mount Olympus and almighty Zeus spirals into paranoia, three mortals are destined to reshape the future of humankind.

What would happen if Zeus was a tasteless, egotistical, paranoid, and overly controlling deity, whose best friend (and long-time prisoner), Prometheus, was secretly plotting his downfall. Orpheus is a rock star. Dionysus is a party-boy who’s feeling empty — he’s looking for more out of life. Hades and Persephone are actually loving and supportive partners. Hera, Zeus’s wife and sister is really just sick to death of him. Does this not sound like a fabulous show to you?!

The Boroughs  
In a seemingly perfect retirement community, a crew of unlikely heroes must stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don't have: time.

🚨 SPOILER ALERT! 🚨
We find out in the end that the aliens, who we’ve been led to believe are the baddies, have been in fact victimized for multiple decades by wealthy capitalist fuckers. There SHOULD have been at least a second season so we could have a happy, free, next chapter for the aliens who had been enslaved for so long

Lovecraft Country 
A search for a missing father turns into an otherworldly trip. Based on Matt Ruff's novel, this series follows Korean war vet Atticus Freeman, his friend Letitia and his Uncle George on a journey across 1950s Jim Crow America.

Why no second season? Supposedly it’s because the first season covered the entirety of Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel which the show is taken from. I’d buy that except for the fact that producers managed to squeeze out another season and a half of Good Omens despite covering all of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s book in the first season. The only reason Omens ended at 2.5 seasons was because it came out that Gaiman had assaulted and otherwise abused multiple women. The reports that emerged were shockingly awful and the backlash was deservedly fierce. If not for that, Omens would likely still be running.

Apparently Lovecraft may have had a slightly similar issue as one of the stars, Jonathan Majors, was arrested and found guilty of assault, aggravated harassment, and harassment of his now ex-girlfriend. Bad publicity but they could have just replaced him, right?

Firefly  
A renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.

Yes the show came out in 2002 and I’m still pissed about this.

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Precious Ramotswe launches the first-ever female detective agency in Botswana. She embarks on various adventures while investigating cases and must also overcome several challenges in her quest.

Not an earth shattering show it was nice, intriguing, enjoyable, engaging, and filmed in Botswana. I’ve never been there so it was like traveling without having to leave home. I miss that.

Crazyhead 
Bowling alley worker Amy and nonconformist Raquel kick some serious demon butt while also facing their inner demons as they navigate their early 20s.

This show was SO much fun! Okay, okay, there’s one episode where, in order to kill the demon, Raquel has to hold the bastard down while Amy pees on his face. That was just hilarious. Of course I imagined Jen and I stuck in that same scenario. I’d be the one holding the demon down because Jen has better balance and could stand and pee on a demon’s face without falling over. Obvs, I couldn’t.
Ride or Die
Debbie discovers that her friend of 20 years, Judith, is secretly an assassin. After a hit goes wrong, they go on the run while being targeted by a mysterious enemy, forcing them to confront the secrets between them.

THIS is the one that’s currently just killing me! I LOVE this show. Octavia Spencer as Debbie the ultra smart and savvy American wife of a member of Parliament and Hannah Waddingham as Judith the elite assassin are an amazing team. WHY is there not a second season? I want to know! We have just one episode left to watch and I just can’t see how everything can be satisfactorily wrapped up.

I need a second season dammit!

One show that deservedly got a second season — Reginald the Vampire. This wasn’t a killer-diller show but it was sweet, fun, and the storyline needed more than one season to properly resolve. Not all shows need to go on forever (hello, I’m looking at you Law & Order) but — please— can we NOT have forced, sudden endings?

Okay, one exception. I’d like a forced sudden ending to the Pedo and Putin Show. You know, the one with Netanyahu guest starring. Yeah, cancel that shit please. Right now, K?

Distraction Action

I’ve never seen Die Hard. Why not? Eh, it looked like a cheesy Bruce Willis frat boy, aren’t-men-strong-funny-heroic-sexy-strong, fluffy, two dimensional, leave-your-brain-at-home action flick where lots of things go boom but none of the good guys die or suffer much more than a scratch. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Then I heard that it’s a Christmas movie. That is my least favorite holiday and that put me off even more. To be fair, I don’t think I have a favorite holiday. I’m not a holiday kind of person.

All of a sudden though, I want to see Die Hard. Warum? I just read a post praising the villain, played by Alan Rickman. My god, he was one of my favorite actors. The man could play a ham sandwich in a 2-act about a lonely, unfulfilled panini. He'd make it emotionally encompassing — rich and funny without cheating the depth. I’d leave the theater in tears but also laughing, remembering his tone, postures, and looks that communicated much more than mere words.

I wonder if Rickman and Tim Curry ever performed together. They’d totally burn down the house!

* just did a quick search and the sad answer is no. WHAT a loss to the theater! Can you just imagine them in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story or Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune? How about A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters or Murder for Two by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair? 

They would have killed! Seriously.
~~~
I’ve been in a book reading valley — just have NOT been able to find any new reads or fresh authors that trip my trigger. The better part of the problem here is that I’m after something that will amuse and distract me from the horrors that are going on in the world right now but I don’t want something that’s the literary equivalent of cotton candy, deep fried oreos, and Cadbury Creme Eggs. //shudder// 

Sure, I want a happy ending but I want some adventure, a little realism, a thought provoking theme or two wouldn’t be bad. So, this brought me back to Philip K. Dick who I haven’t read in eons. What I remember from when I was binge reading him in my 20s is that his books are fairly uneven. Some are brilliant, coherent, well written, provocative, and just generally great fucking rides. Others? Well, they may have some of those aspects to a certain degree, a few of them, but not enough to make the book, for me, a banger.

Right now I’m desperately trying to get away from doomscrolling. Spending an afternoon reading even a mid PK Dick sci-fi novel is gonna be light years better for my head than taking in more about the Cornell 7, how Pedo, Musk, etc. are working to rig the midterms, and seeing how many fresh innocents ICE, Putin, and Bibi have maimed and killed in the past 24 hours.

So then, I’m reading Dr. Futurity. The opening scene is set in the year 2012.

Jim Parsons is a talented doctor, skilled at the most advanced medical techniques and dedicated to saving lives. But after a bizarre road accident leaves him hundreds of years in the future, Parsons is horrified to discover an incredibly advanced civilization that zealously embraces death. Now, he is caught between his own instincts and training as a healer and a society where it is illegal to save lives.  (source) 

I’m enjoying the book so far but Dick def dips down on the cheesy side. Fer instance, when the leader of one of the tribes is responding to a statement Parsons has made that upsets her, Dick makes sure to describe how her full breasts lift as she takes a deep breath, her long, gleaming hair falling over them. When I read the line I rolled my eyes so hard I broke the sky.

Reminds me of that Tumblr post titled Male writers writing female characters: 

Cassandra woke up to the rays of the sun streaming through the slats on her blinds, cascading over her naked chest. She stretched, her breasts lifting with her arms as she greeted the sun. She rolled out of bed and put on a shirt, her nipples prominently showing through the thin fabric. She breasted boobily to the stairs, and titted downwards.

Dr. Futurity came out in 1960. You know, the ‘60s — back when Playboy serialized Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Nine Lives. That’s when they featured Arthur C. Clarke as well. 

I’m sure Dick was writing with his mostly male audience in mind.

Here We Go Again

You’ve probably heard about the 28-year-old Siberian lab tech, Darya Shipilova, by now, eh? On September 25th a test tube filled with live samples of pneumonic plague broke in her lab. She was taken to the hospital on the 29th and died two days later. WTF?! 

If caught and identified quickly pneumonic plague is supposedly easily treatable with antibiotics. 

Well, I’ve got questions:

• Wouldn’t the Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East have medical personnel, antibiotics and other meds on hand in case of emergency?
• Why did it take four days to get Darya to a hospital?
• Was the test tube unlabeled? 
• Did she NOT know that she’d just dropped Yersinia pestis pathogens all over the damn floor and was now breathing in that shit? 
• Was she NOT masked up? If not, WHY not? I mean, did she not know the dangers of the pathogens she was working with?
• In the days since her dropping the test tube, releasing the plague, and her death, have any of her coworkers left the building, the area, the country? Are they being tracked?
• Are the workers there scientists or just Homer Simpson types? 

189 to 200 contacts are currently being quarantined. Is that everyone who was exposed?

Pneumonic plague spreads from person to person when an infected individual coughs or sneezes, releasing infectious respiratory droplets into the air that others inhale. The incubation period of pneumonic plague following inhalation can be as short as +1 day. (source) 

Disingenuously, Russia has called what killed Darya a "pneumonia of unknown origin.” Sure man.

No worries here in the USA — Brainworm Bobby’s sure to keep us all safe … right?

Looks like we may be in for another Trump Plague. Maybe … maybe not but, given this mashed pea brained administration, we’re pretty much fucked. It’s time to stock up on N-95 masks and remember how we got by during COVID lockdown days. Hint: stay away from other people, especially MAGAts and other anti-science morons.

While pneumonic plague is treatable with antibiotics, you can bet your sweet antimicrobial ass that the rich will be treated first. Meds will be prioritized and stockpiled for them. They don't buy all those congresscritters for the good of the nation, ya know!

Us peasants? Horse paste, bleach cocktails, god fraudster Jim Bakker’s extra special colloidal silver as a dietary supplement, having that grifting televangelist Kenneth Copeland summon "the wind of God” (yahweh farts? divinity toots? creator air biscuits?) to exorcise the plague and, of course, vitamin supplements. Maybe some crystals and "spiritual vaccines” (at the low, low cost of the $100 to see $400 per “dose”) too.

What exactly is pneumonic plague? 

“While the circumstances of this reported case remain unconfirmed, plague is a serious bacterial disease that is treatable with antibiotics, particularly when recognized and treated early,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. “At this time, there is no indication from available reporting of a broader threat to the United States.” (source) 

Sounds like the usual let’s-not-panic-the-public semi-plausible government happy talk. In Russia, while they're putting out the usual Newspeak, they seem to be taking this wicked seriously.

Regional authorities are implementing a “comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures,” according to Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district in eastern Russia, near the Mongolian border.

The inpatient facility at the hospital where the worker was treated has been placed under quarantine, and several departments have stopped discharging or admitting patients, Modin said. Other hospitals in the region have also been closed, according to local media reports. (source) 

IF this plague gets out of control as COVID did, how many will die because of Trump's lies and inaction this time? Think Trump’s cult will buy that it’s a hoax, that it’s only a few isolated cases, this will all be over in a couple weeks malarkey a second time? 

They were stupid, gullible, and trusting enough once. I'm sure a fair amount will double down on the dim yet again.

And here’s something rather concerning (to put it mildly):

Earlier this year scientists in the US used AI to create 16 new viruses from scratch in a move that experts hailed as both a “significant breakthrough” but one that posed significant biosecurity concerns.

While there is no evidence that the Russian lab currently under the spotlight was handling anything other than a regular plague pathogen there are concerns over what is happening in the country’s military labs.

During the Cold War the Soviet Union developed a covert biological weapons programme that only came to light when some of its scientists defected to the west.

Vladimir Pasechnik, a scientist who defected to Britain in 1989, described working on an aerosolised strain of plague and putting it on a cruise missile at a laboratory near Leningrad, now St Petersburg. (source)

On that insane note, I think I’m gonna go shower and then look for a big bag of cookies that need to be decimated. Yup, that’s the ticket!

This and That

Listen here, I’m now convinced that strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is, in point of fact, a fine basis for a system of government. And yes, you can wield supreme power simply because some watery tart threw a sword at you!

Still, I’m voting in the midterms and I hope to fuck you are too. If you’re voting by mail, do it early and I seriously recommend using the drop boxes versus the USPS. Mail service is totally fucked up lately. e.g.:

• My credit union sent me a new debit card a month ago — never arrived. They sent another one last week — still not here. I’ll have to go in to pick one up which is an arduous effort for yours disabled truly. 
• I sent off my credit card payment as soon as I got the bill. They started sending me late notices and then I got another bill with a late charge added on. Yes, did they finally get and cash my original check but not until after I’d sent off a fresh one.

By the by, not all states allow drop boxes for submitting ballots. Check here to see if your state is cool or not. 

Be sure to double and triple check that you are still registered to vote. Also, arrange NOW for a just-in-case ride for early voting in the event that you do NOT receive your mail-in ballot.

Remember, Prez Pedo and his greedheaded, soulless, renfieldian Republican billionaire buddies (I’m looking at you MusKKK, Jeff Yass, and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein to name just a few, are looking to banjax the fuck out this race.
~~~
Wish I still had hearing. Okay, that’s a given — it’s, pretty much, how I feel every damn day BUT last night I stumbled on a Substack post by Bob Massey that heightened that (Massey's a former Washington Post journalist, an LA screenwriter, and author of the memoir Dead Virgins for America).  Bob wrote about Su Tissue, (AKA Sue McLane, the singer from Suburban Lawns, a late ‘70s new wave band from Long Beach), who made a three-movement experimental album that sounds like Steve Reich collaborating with the Cocteau Twins. 

Mein Gott! I absofucking LOVE Steve Reich and the Cocteau Twins. WHY can’t I listen to this album?! NO FAIRS!!!
~~~
Five corporations control 90% of the US media.

Airlines have merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today.

A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry.

Four giants control 80% of meat processing.

The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.
~ Robert Reich

To add to what Reich said:

• A country run by banks will always be in debt.
• A country run by health insurance companies never be healthy.
• A country with government controlled/influenced media (Hello Fox “news,” OANN, Newsmax, etc.) will never know the truth. 
• A nation heavily invested in building weapons of war will always be at war.

As of September 3rd, Pedo's Epstein Distraction war in Iran has cost U.S. taxpayers $43.6 billion, 25 dead Americans, and tens of thousands of dead Iranians and Lebanese people.

We live in a Plutocratic Corporatocracy

Plutocracy: a system of government or society controlled exclusively, directly or indirectly, by people of great wealth

Corporatocracy: a system where business corporations or corporate entities direct government policy, laws, and economic priorities to favor private gain over public need

BRING ON THE WATERY TARTS!

Cats and Random Excrement

Nurse Cake has been working serious overtime this week. Between all my MRIs, another goddamn foot procedure, and miscellaneous appointments, this poor kitten hasn’t caught a break. 

Can I please just become a cyborg now? Fer reals. My organic parts are all way past warranty and no one makes replacement parts for a ’58 Donna anymore. Cake’s been a very good, supportive boy and clearly deserves ALL the treats and naps!
~~~
Ya know how Christian nationalists are their movement's worst salesmen? Instead of attracting people to their brand of white, het, alpha male, ultra republican Jesus, they’re repelling folks. The stone hypocrisy between their actions and their claimed savior's words kind of turns most folks with functioning brains off. Honestly, if you want to convert a crowd of faithful Sunday morning churchgoers into agnostics who wake, maybe go for a walk on the beach, and then phone bank for their local Democratic candidate, have them spend an hour with a Christian nationalist.

A new study by Samuel L. Perry, the Sam K. Viersen Presidential Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma looks at the correlation between those who are unable to thoroughly or carefully think and being a right-wing Jesus fool/tool. There's a good clear article on it in PsyPost, an independent science news website. It's titled Lower cognitive ability is linked to stronger Christian nationalist views, even after accounting for education.

A new study indicates that Americans with lower scores on a vocabulary test commonly used to measure cognitive ability are more likely to endorse Christian nationalist beliefs, even when accounting for their overall level of education. The findings suggest that the appeal of this political and religious ideology relates to underlying cognitive resources rather than just differences in schooling. The research was published in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. (source) 

Can’t say this comes as a surprise.
~~~
More absolute insane hypocrisy, stupidity, and cruelty from the Shit for Brains Administration — he’s trying to deport an anti-Zionist Hasidic Jew “home” to Israel.

The Trump administration is trying to deport Yehonatan Ovadia, a Satmar Hasidic religious teacher in Rockland County, New York. His alleged offense: taking part in a 2023 protest against an Israeli flag flown outside a town hall. Ovadia, who says he did not remove the flag, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine, but then his religious worker visa was revoked and he was detained by ICE. If the government wins, he may be sent to Israel, the country he was protesting. (source) 

Yeah, that sounds real safe. Pedo, of all people, is judging this Hasidic Jewish man, claiming that he’s an antisemite. 

Trump is no stranger to passing judgement on Jews. This is the smooth brained, anus mouthed, vulgarian who accused Jews who vote for Democratic candidates of being disloyal to Israel. 

The mini mushroom dicked pedo is a prime example of complete cognitive failure and moral bankruptcy. DUH!

~~~
Cornell University president, Michael Kotlikoff, has said the school will take steps to prevent more frat gang rapes from happening. I wonder how they plan on doing that – more essays? Will part of frat initiation be to write on a chalkboard 100 times, “I will not drug and gang rape women”? Maybe he’ll just form committees, who will meet with frat boys, asking them, ya know, what can we do to encourage you to stop raping vagina-having students.

The university would seek input, he said, from students, alumni and others on how to “preserve what is valuable about Greek life while strengthening individual accountability, transparency and a culture in which every member understands their responsibility to protect the safety and wellbeing of others”. (source) 

Yup, sounds like that’s the wholly milquetoast-y, doomed-to-fail, just-for-show plan. 

Jane Doe’s lawsuit against Cornell, seven fraternity members and others, alleges that the school failed to adequately punish ‌some of the accused students. Oh yeah, that’s a fucking understatement.

Tennessee Fail

Christa Pike is a murderer. There’s no getting around that. In 1995 she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer. An anonymous tip was phoned in — Pike and Shipp were snatched up within a few days.

18-year-old Christa was sentenced to death via electronic chair (the only option available in Tennessee in1996). Tadaryl was 17, a minor — not ‘eligible’ for the death penalty. He got life with the possibility of parole.

In the 30 years since Christa was sentenced to death it’s been discovered that the brain is still developing at 18. Other mitigating factors include:

• she had been physically and sexually abused throughout childhood
• raped by a neighbor when she was just 11
• shuttled around between various relations in West Virginia and North Carolina.

Not exactly a peaceful, safe, stable upbringing. Christa was only diagnosed as having bipolar disorder a few years after she was already in prison.

Given that the Slemmer’s murder happened and was tried in the burning red state of Tennessee, the verdict would likely be the same today as it was 30 years ago. I’m NOT saying Christa should’ve gotten a slap on the wrist. Fuck no! I’m saying the death  penalty shouldn’t have been on the table. Save that for genocidal corporate autocrats. You know who I'm talking about.

So, Pike was finally being executed after 30 years on death row but, guess what, Republicans can’t be trusted to do anything right. They demonstrate this BIG and BOLD every goddamn chance they get.

Christa Pike remained hospitalized, unconscious and on a machine helping her breathe after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.

The attorneys said hospital staff were working to save Pike’s life and clear the pentobarbital she was administered from her system as of late Thursday.

Pike received two doses of the drug in a failed attempt by the state of Tennessee to execute her on Wednesday. (source) 

She did not lose consciousness during the attempted execution. Her heart continued to beat. Right now, she's alive and unconscious, on a ventilator in a Nashville hospital. 

Tennessee is one of those proud, devastatingly stupid, and willfully ignorant, “pro-life” states that has banned all abortions. It’s illegal from the point of fertilization. There are no exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or fatal fetal anomalies. Doctors who perform abortions to save a woman or a child’s life face felony charges, loss of their medical licenses, and heavy fines. Given this threat, docs are reluctant to place themselves in jeopardy until it’s abundantly clear that the woman will die without intervention. Often enough, they’re too damn late. 

ALSO, F-fucking-YI, consider a pregnant 12 year old who has been raped — odds of this young girl, this victim, successfully surviving pregnancy and birth with mental and physical health intact are slim. A child’s mind and body aren’t mature enough to handle this birth shit. So, Tennessee is gonna violate this child a second time and quite possibly sentence her to a painful death or lifelong disability? Yup, that’s real pro-life of ya, babes.

Back to Christa’s case, Tennessee was actively, legally trying to murder her. They botched the job and now they’re jumping through hoops to save her life? DUDES, make up your fucking minds! Do you want her dead or alive?

East Tennessee attorney Marcos Garza stated that the authority of the state correction officials ended the moment doctors took over.  

 Why does this not work for a pregnant woman in distress? WHY does a pregnant woman in distress, who has NOT committed a crime, have to be holding hands with the grim reaper before it’s safe for a medic to swoop in and do his damn job? WHY is the heartbeat of a fetus (whose needs you’re going to totally ignore the second it’s born) more important than the mother? Answer me that you cattle fuckers!

This is Tennessee’s second banjaxed lethal injection since the state tried to off Tony Carruthers in May. They going for a Guinness World Record?

 According to US News and Word Report Tennessee ranks 31st in education and 39th in healthcare. 

Wallet Hub has Tennessee at 39th in education and 42nd in healthcare. 

Tennessee — every bit as hypocritical as an evangelical TV preacher whose been caught with a stack of cash, a bag of coke, and three sex workers of various genders (one of which may have already ODed).