Zebra Day

In the UK a crosswalk is called a zebra crossing. A “zebra crossing” specifically refers to a crosswalk with white stripes (not to be confused with the band, thenkyouveddymuch). I love this but I’m rather disappointed to see that the crossing stripes look nothing like a zebra’s fluid, trippy, undulant streaks.

A crosswalk like that would be way more fun, wouldn’t it?
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Some good news, a ray of hope anyway, from Concentration Camp Land. Looks like the hellhole in the Everglades will be shuttered in 60 days. 

A federal judge in Miami late on Thursday ordered the closure of the Trump administration’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail within 60 days, and ruled that no more detainees were to be brought to the facility while it was being wound down.
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The ruling is a significant victory for a coalition of environmental groups and a native American tribe that sued the state of Florida and the federal government. (source) 

That tribe? The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. They brought the lawsuit along with Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Dumbshit DeSantis, unwilling to be denied his right to be considered more cruel than Killer Kristi, announced that he’ll open a second immigration jail at an old prison near Gainesville. He’s calling it Deportation Depot.  How folksy. NO. Your marketing instincts are evil.

The man (and I use the term VERY loosely) who thinks that Hitler and Stephen Miller were/are too nice immediately filed an appeal to the judges decision and issued a statement which he undoubtedly thought was peak clever:

“The deportations will continue until morale improves.” 

I'm guessing here that this was Governor Kinky Boots' attempt at wit. FAIL. Authoritarian fools just can’t compete when it comes to humor. 

Now then, these aspirant despots just can't bear to be treated the way they treat all those they deem inferior. It confuses and frustrates them. They NEED to always be in control, manipulating, playing the master. 

Being mocked drives them 'round the bend. Being publicly, widely, consistently ridiculed totally disrupts their control kink. They’re out of the driver’s seat, destabilized, and they don’t know how to deal with that. It breaks their game.

So let’s keep it up – expand on Jasmine Crockett's dry, cutting wit and Newsom’s team’s tart, spot on parody. Go with Governor Walz just plainly calling the fuckers weird. They ARE weird! Fight the assholes with fire but add in a heavy dose of derisive ridicule, ragging, and mockery. Hell, pants the motherfuckers!
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Just in case you were wondering, THIS is what the word “woke” actually means:

Kiandria Demone is an author, activist, creator, and marketing guru in Atlanta, Georgia.
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I want to see as a long-term goal that we do not have political gerrymandering in America. That would be my preference…but we cannot unilaterally allow one of the two major parties to rig the game.
~ Barack Obama 
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There’s some movement on the whole Epstein File business. The first wave of the files are being sent to the House Oversight Committee today.

“After months of stonewalling, calling Epstein files a hoax, and telling people nothing but porn exists in their possession, the administration now admits the files exist, and agrees to release some of them,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in a social media post this week. “Americans want transparency though, not smoke and mirrors.”

Massie, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), has been leading the charge to force a floor vote on a resolution that would compel the release of the Epstein files…
   ~~~
Democrats are also signaling they won’t be satisfied by the DOJ’s game plan and will continue to make the issue a political headache for Republicans.

“Releasing the Epstein files in batches just continues this White House cover-up. The American people will not accept anything short of the full, unredacted Epstein files,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “We will keep pressing until the American people get the truth — every document, every fact, in full. The administration must comply with our subpoena, by law.” (source) 

So, it’s not a dead issue. Not yet anyway. There’s still a chance to expose and punish these millionaire and billionaire predatory, pedophiles – these monsters who mistake themselves for gods.

Yeah, fuck that shit with a rusty, disease infused spork.  BRING THEM ALL DOWN!

Concentration Camp America

Did you know?

The Governor of Nebraska did some kind of a backdoor deal with the Orange Nazi administration to get an ICE prison built. They’re calling it the Cornhusker Clink. Makes me wanna hurl Godzilla sized fetid chunks.

Making a game of nicknaming concentration camps is pretty damned depraved, wouldn’t ya say? (The answer to that rhetorical question is YES, fucking well YES, of course it is!)

I wonder what name the treasonous bastards in Texas will come up with for the concentration camp they slapped together at Fort Bliss, in El Paso. It’s supposed to hold up to 5,000 people and is a tent camp. Maybe they’ll call it the Lone Star Sauna or just go straight for reality and call it the Texas Torture Plantation.

Opened at the height of the Texas summer, where temperatures regularly soar above 100 degrees and sandstorms are frequent, detainees are at serious risk of heat-related illness and other harsh conditions.
   ~~~
Built behind the walls of a military installation and away from public view, the facility is a calculated move to militarize immigration enforcement, reduce transparency, and fast-track deportations with minimal accountability.
   ~~~
Fort Bliss has long been used to carry out government policies rooted in xenophobia and racism. During World War II, it was one of several Texas military bases used as internment camps for people of Japanese descent, as well as German and Italian immigrants. During the Mexican Revolution more than 20 years earlier, the base served as a temporary holding site for thousands of Mexican refugees, many of whom were kept in military tents and exposed to toxic chemical delousing agents. Some of the chemicals were later used in Nazi gas chambers. (source) 

According to the Cato Institute 65% of the people abducted by ICE have no convictions AT ALL and 93% don’t have so much as a single violent conviction.

As of June 14, ICE had booked into detention 204,297 individuals (since October 1, 2024, the start of fiscal year 2025). Of those book-ins, 65 percent, or 133,687 individuals, had no criminal convictions. Moreover, more than 93 percent of ICE book-ins were never convicted of any violent offenses. About nine in ten had no convictions for violent or property offenses. (source) 

I’m guessing that most people who come to the U.S. are hoping to lift themselves and their families out of harder lives, greater poverty. Possibly they’re escaping harsh, crushing persecution and/or wild political instability. Maybe they come to join family who’ve already created a life here. 

The crime they’ve committed? Hope. They dream of a better life for themselves and their families. Dat’s it. That’s the crime. Oh, and having brown skin. The orange skinned beast and his pasty white lizard, Stephen Miller, really don’t like it when humans don’t have white, white skin. Maybe they can’t digest brown as well…should prolly see a good gastroenterologist about that, eh?

Back to the camps though…you can give nazi concentration camps all the cute little names but they’re still nazi concentration camps. Calling them Cornhusker Clink, Speedway Slammer (Indiana), and Alligator Alcatraz doesn’t make them fun, cheeky, sitcom/primetime/family-hour ready. It doesn’t sanitize the suffering and barbarism or in any bloody way make them remotely humane. They’re still cruel and astoundingly disgusting. 

Did Trump and his band of viciously racist scorpions think they could use a little Disney marketing magic to razzle dazzle the masses into not thinking about all the lives they’re destroying? Clearly, yes. They think we’re all rubes who are so easily duped by grade school level sales efforts.

Marketing, in case ya hadn't picked up on this already, is just lies wrapped up in sweet-talk and pretty, soothing, sexy packaging. In 2014 the Nebraska Tourism Commission rolled out their new ad slogan – Nebraska Nice. 

Yeah...right. That’s obviously a big fucking lie.

Glow in the Dark Bar Snacks

In case you hadn't heard, we now have radioactive shrimp. They're available at your local Walmart (another good reason to boycott the joint, if you can).

The Food and Drug Administration is warning the public not to eat, sell or serve certain Great Value raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart due to possible contamination with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope. (source) 

Waddayaknow, the Food and Drug Administration falls under the aegis of Health and Human Services. And who runs Health and Human Services, boys and girls? Why, that’d be the old, worm eaten brained, dead bear cub desecrating, whale corpse violating, dog eating, heroin addict and inveterate liar Robert F. Kennedy Jr. You remember him don’cha? The man so incapable of basic human decency that, instead of getting his wife and the mother of his four children help, he had affair after affair after affair. Blatantly even. He kept a diary detailing his 37 affairs. I only mention it but they were only married for 16 years. This breaks down to, on average, 2.3125 affairs per year. DAMN!

Bobby Brainworm’s treatment of Mary was heinous. 

In Bobby’s telling, here and in the press, he was the victim, enduring a mentally disturbed alcoholic wife who, at a low point in their divorce, was found passed out at the dinner table, face down in her food.  

The funeral, though — that was elegant. The service ended with “America the Beautiful,” a nod to all that the Kennedys have given their country.  

One week later, in the middle of the night, without telling Mary’s siblings or obtaining the required legal permitting, Bobby Jr. had Mary’s coffin dug up from the Kennedy family plot in Massachusetts and moved 700 feet away. When reporters found out and asked why, Bobby, through a family spokesperson, said he failed to realize how crowded the Kennedy family plot was (source)   

WHAT a colossal puke.

Everyone in Trump's orbit, the whole lot of them, just LOVE to proclaim themselves the real victim, the poor oppressed ones, while being the instigating, assiduously assholian waste products the entire time.

Bad enough that his callous, self-centered behavior inspired the mother of his four children to off herself and prompted a small island of people to NOT get vaccinated for measles (leading to 5700 infected and 83 deaths), Brainworm Boy is trying to kill the rest of us with his stone idiocy.

In late May it was revealed that he’s just making up scientific studies and research papers out of fantasies, delusions, and wishes. 

There’s been a 31% cut to cancer research. 

He just pulled out the rug on federal funding for mRNA vaccine research. This also effects cancer research.

In June he fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine advisory panel – they recommend the vaccines Americans should get. That’s pretty damned important don’cha think? To make matters even worse:

Two days later, he named eight new people to the influential panel. The list included a scientist who criticized Covid-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns and someone who worked with a group widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation. (source) 

Fer fuck's sake! Is it any wonder I rarely leave the house anymore and, when I do, I mask up.

I have a seriously bad case of existential exhaustion.

A Few Absurdities

Stinky claims to have ended six wars since he became president. Sure, bud.

Trump and his administration have claimed to have helped settle the conflicts between Israel and Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. (source) 

And yet... 

• Violence continues in Democratic Republic of Congo.

• If you recall, Fuckface had his drunk, rapey toad Kegseth carry out strikes on Iran on Netanyahu’s behalf. That doesn’t sound like peace to me. You?

• India says Trump had fuck-all to do with the ceasefire deal reached with Pakistan. 

• There’s no deal between Egypt and Ethiopia. 

• As far as I can tell, all the bloated bloviator did re: Thailand and Cambodia was make a phone call and drone on about tariffs.  (and pronounce Thailand as Thighland)

• And Serbia says they never had any plans to go to war with Kosovo despite Stinky, ultra weirdly, taking credit for preventing this imaginary war.

Naturally none of the “reporters” in Bloated Boy's little staged press conference asked him to name one war that he’s responsible for wholly, absolutely ending – one ceasefire that he’s negotiated. Why didn't they? The White House dictates who gets into the press pool so there aren’t any actual, real journalists there. They’re all already in Donnie Demento’s putrid pockets.

“I've settled 6 Wars in 6 months, one of them a possible Nuclear disaster.”  

Motherfucker, this isn’t your cheesy golf course where everyone humors you while you lie and cheat your titanic ass off. Real news outlets know and report.
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Elsewhere, a Republican candidate to be the Representative for House District 14 in New Mexico was sentenced to 80 years in prison for shooting into his opponent and other state and local lawmakers homes.

Four men conspired with Peña, who is accused of paying them cash to carry out at least two of the drive-by shootings in stolen vehicles, while Pena “pulled the trigger” during one of the crimes, Deputy Police Commander Kyle Hartsock said. (source)  

Solomon Peña, the Republican, said the election was “rigged.” Gee, wonder where he got that notion from.
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Laura Loomer argued with a Speak and Spell about whether she’s clinically mentally unwell, thus proving the toy’s point.

I wonder – is she at all aware that she’s yelling at the equivalent of an Easy Bake Oven?

“TAKE IT BACK GROK!” she screamed at her iPhone.

I wonder if Melania and Tiny are still planning to sue Hunter Biden for bazillions. Has anyone told them about depositions and discoveries yet?

BIRFDAY!

Yesterday, it was my birthday
I hung one more year on the line
I should be depressed
My life’s a mess
But I’m having a good time
~ Paul Simon, Have a Good Time

Okay, it’s today – today is my birthday but the sentiment’s the same.

Is my life really a mess though? I’d say no more, and certainly far less of a mess than a shit-ton of other people. My health is abysmal but I’m still alive, able to enjoy cookies, the love of a very patient, good man, AND the rest of my Valhallan famiglia.

To riff on Oliver Sacks, At 11, I could say I am sodium (element 11), and now at 67, I am a Ho – i.e., holmium. 

Holmium is a rare-earth element with the atomic number 67. It has the symbol Ho.

Holmium can absorb neutrons, so it is used in nuclear reactors to keep a chain reaction under control. 

 I absorb neutrons, I contain multitudes. Apologies to old Walt there.

“Strange to be almost fifty, no? I feel like I just understood how to be young.”

"Yes! It's like the last day in a foreign country. You finally figure out where to get coffee, and drinks, and a good steak. And then you have to leave. And you won't ever be back.” 
~ Andrew Sean Greer, Less 

And here I am, just a few years shy of 70. Back in my ultra recent surgery marathon years (2020 - 2024), I honestly, seriously, and for sure thought I’d be gone by now. I mean, how many times can I get my bean and spine opened up like a can of Campbell’s soup before the old bod says ENOUGH!? How many times can I recover to the point where I can bathe, dress, and feed myself? Take a bit of daily exercise? Enjoy the company of my chosen famiglia? Read, blog, and doodle?

Luckily, the answer is more than five.

I want to grow old without facelifts... I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I've made. Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know you. 
~ Marilyn Monroe 

She never got the chance to know. Monroe was 36 when she overdosed. If she had lived, she would have turned 99 this past June.

I know a few women who’ve had work done. No judgement – their bodies/their choice. If I had the spare dosh and wasn’t already being sliced open on the regular, would I have fountain of youth type work done? Doubt it. I’d rather spend my money on other things. Like what? Travel, planting forests and fields of wildflowers, cleaning up oceans, cats, medical science research shit, and a 1970 baby blue Karmann Ghia – you know, STUFF.

So, how am I celebrating my birthday? Well, it’s a gorgeous day here in Valhalla so maybe Ten and I will take a walk down to the seawall. I won’t be able to do more than that as, in a fit of exuberance, I over-exercised the other day and re-banjaxed my left foot (joy). I might sit on the porch, reading and watching the tide come in. Later, when Jen and Oni get home from work there’ll be tacos and cake. Mmmmmmmmm!

On Aging

One of the strange things about adulthood is that you are your current self, but you are also all the selves you used to be, the ones you grew out of but can't ever quite get rid of. 
~ John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet 

Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.
~ Gloria Steinem 

…yesterday I happened to notice in the mirror that while I have long since grown used to my beard being very grey indeed, I was not prepared to discover that my eyebrows are becoming noticeably shaggy. I feel the tomb is just around the corner. And there are all these books I haven't read yet, even if I am simultaneously reading at least twenty...
~ Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer 

The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time. 
~ Dante Alighieri  

(Idea for a ghost story: a woman gets old and falls out of time and realizes that she’s become invisible.)
~ Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel 

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.
~ Mark Twain

Keeping up the appearance of having all your marbles is hard work, but important. 
~ Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants 

The older I get the less I care what other people think of me. Therefore the older I get the more I enjoy life.
~ Oscar Auliq-Ice 

Wisdom is the reward for surviving our own stupidity. 
~ Brian Rathbone, Regent 

We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly. 
~ Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man 

One of the seats of emotion and memory in the brain is the amygdala, he explained. When something threatens your life, this area seems to kick into overdrive, recording every last detail of the experience. The more detailed the memory, the longer the moment seems to last. "This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older," Eagleman said--why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.
~ Burkhard Bilger writing about David Eagleman and the mysteries of the brain 

I reckon responsible behavior is something to get when you grow older. Like varicose veins. 
~ Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters 

And meanwhile time goes about its immemorial work of making everyone look and feel like shit.
~ Martin Amis, London Fields 

Fighting Fire with Fire

Governor Gavin Newsom has his flaws. I won’t debate anyone on that. You know what else he has? He’s got stainless steel cojones. He’s been setting loose his stellar comms team with all their snarkariffic, scalpel sharp wit.

He’s mocking the fuck outta the evil, odorous, third-rate grifting ass, pedophile rapist. Stinky probably can’t even see it. Some of his ride-and-die faithful MAGAt zombie cultists MIGHT catch that the joke’s on them (the joke IS them – every last one of ‘em) but I doubt it. Most likely, the ones who notice, have their panties in a twist because the “Demoncrats” aren’t laying laying down and taking it like good little victims. Nope, Newsom’s fighting Stinky’s moronic, junior high braggadocio and taunts with a sharply focused flamethrower of mockery.

It’s sure been sweet as fuck to see someone else besides Jasmine Crockett stand up with bold weapons grade wit. About damn time.

California's Democratic governor has unveiled a high-stakes plan to redraw voting lines in America's most populous state, in order to counter similar efforts by Republicans in Texas.

Gavin Newsom called for a special election to be held in November, in which voters would be asked to approve lawmakers redrawing congressional districts before national midterms in 2026. 

He billed the move as an emergency measure in response to a Donald Trump-backed plan in Texas, which could see the Republicans pick up five more seats in the finely-balanced House. (source) 

Newsom’s also not about to play the only nice, calm, mature adult in the room while Texas elected authoritarian assholes gargle Nazi balls and continue to rip apart what this country is supposed to stand for. 

He’s bringing a rocket launcher to the gun fight the GOP (Guardians of Pedophiles) started.

In bocca al lupo.
Crepi il lupo! 

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Meanwhile, more on the Hoagie Hero, Sean Dunn:

He’s been released on his own recognizance and the absolutely ridiculous felony charges were dropped. He is due back in court next week to face an enhanced version of an assault charge that requires bodily injury and carries up to eight years in federal prison. 

Video posted to Instagram shows the incident Sunday night near 14th and U Street NW. Court documents allege Dunn verbally confronted federal officers before tossing his sandwich at one officer from close range.

Police say Dunn admitted to the act, telling officers, “I did it. I threw the sandwich.” (source) 

This charge is some serious bullshit. There’s no way the “officer” (i.e., ICE goon) suffered anything more than possibly a mayo stain on his Amazon purchased camo vest. The absolute most Dunn should have been charged with is littering. Maybe wasting food but I don’t think that’s an actual crime.

There was a post up on Threads about a punk bar (that serves food) in D.C. that’s thinking about making a sub sandwich in honor of the hero and donating 10% of all sales to resistance funds. Yes – DO IT!

Bill Amend

First though, help hoagie wielding Sean Dunn, a USAF veteran who was fired from the Department of Justice for his act of defiance. I mean, he’s facing EIGHT YEARS for throwing a sandwich at one of the President Pedophile’s thugs? Insanity.

Commenters on the thread also suggested a pay-it-forward option where sandwiches could be made and distributed to shelters and other unhoused folk. I like this A LOT.

I’m old – I don’t know how these things work. Is there a way to make the donation checkable? That is, I’m in Boston and buy a hoagie to be made and given to a shelter in D.C. How can I check to make sure that actually happened?

Now I want a Caprese sandwich – fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil. Maybe a bit of pesto and balsamic glaze too? Put it on warm focaccia or ciabatta and I’m in heaven. Mmmmmmmm.

I Have a Few Complaints

Specifically about the new season of Wednesday which finally dropped after a nearly THREE year wait. 

Those prep school teens? Amazingly time was frozen for them and they’re, incredibly, STILL teens. It’s a miracle…or makeup and filters.

So that’s my first kvetch. 

Next? Wednesday’s brother Pugsley – dunno if it’s how he’s written or the actor who plays him but, mein Gott, he’s awful. He’s painfully beef-witted, has the sense of humor of a frat boy or a MAGAt (I know – same/same), and otherwise has zero redeeming qualities. A lump of moldering mashed potatoes would be more interesting to watch. 

Then there’s Wednesday’s mother who was played by the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones in season one. I had to triple check to see that Morticia Addams was still being played by the same actress in season two. I felt certain the show’s producer’s had pulled a Bewitched/Two Darrins stunt on us viewers. THAT’S how different she looks.

 Yes, Zeta-Jones still plays Morticia Addams but it’s clear she’s had serious work done. Perhaps she’s lost a bit too much weight too or maybe the weight just migrated to her lips? Honestly, she’s two steps away from the Mar-a-Lago look. Maybe this is all a show specific horror makeup job? And yet, her face barely moves when she speaks – it’s perfect for publicity stills but doesn’t work so great for moving pictures.

For me, the two best Morticias will always be Carolyn Jones and Anjelica Huston.

Wednesday’s father, played by Luis Guzmán, is photographed and/or made up to look villainously ugly but, to me, he seems to be the most wise and heroic of all the players. So, no real complaints here. Maybe he’s depicted as unattractive as some kind of lesson? A reverse take on all that glitters is not gold? 

The new principal, Barry Dort, is played by Steve Buscemi. This should be great, right? So far, he’s simply slimy and either too obviously evil or just annoyingly please-kill-him-like-a-cockroach bad. Probably more the latter than the former. He’s got nothing on season ones subtle, smart, shapeshifting Principal Weems, played by the absolutely Hitchcockian Gwendoline Christie. So, bad fit for Buscemi – he should return to his Coen Brothers/Tarantino roots.

The brilliant comic actor Christopher Lloyd is in the show but if you blink, you’ll miss him. His amazingness is completely wasted.

 In season one, the character Bianca Barclay (played by Joy Sunday) started as a mean girl but we got to know her better, we got her difficult, complicated back story. She evolved and I came to really like her. This season, she starts without a spine. Metaphorically speaking. I HATE this. It better change! Also, I’m tired of her bright blue contacts. I get that pale blue eyes against dark brown skin makes for a cool, intriguing contrast but…blue? Boring. How about green eyes or orange? 

I’m getting a bit tired of Wednesday’s near relentless dark, hardcore coldheartedness. This isn’t Vulcan stoicism – this is empathy-devoid, ruthless, self-involvement. She’s dancing on the edge of steroidal, goth Ayn Randism.

Is this how the character’s written or how the actor has chosen to play her? Maybe a bit of both? I’m not looking for some Oprah-esque, hippy groovy, kum ba yah transformation but, fer fuck’s sake, this is getting dull. A main character needs to show a wee bit of growth, some evolution if they want to keep (and build) their audience. Yes, between season one/episode one and now there’s been a few cups of growth but the pace has been pre-global warming glacial.

Having said all this, the sets, opening credits and other optical effects are brilliantly creative – just delightful. I wish the show lived up to that promise. Of course I'm gonna keep watching. Maybe it'll get better. Maybe I'll enjoy hate-watching Pugsley. Possibly he'll die gruesomely? A girl can hope.