Finally went machine shopping yesterday, brought home an Asus, Athena. After I get it set up, Hekate (the Lenovo I have a hatehatehate relationship with) will be yet another machine for Rick. Not looking forward to dealing with Winshit 10. And I really, really need to clean my desk.
Binti Home by Nnedi Okorafor was available yesterday, downloaded and read! The ending is abrupt, and somewhat upsetting, because you definitely won’t feel like you’re done reading yet. Brought home some dead tree, too:
© C. Ford.
I’m not usually a zombie type, but we’ve been watching iZombie, so…
House Sparrows, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Corey Perrine.
Just one here, head over to Think Progress to see, in the faces of people, and in their own words, how families are being ruthlessly torn apart for no good reason.
Roozbeh Aliabadi, a former consultant and soon-to-be PhD student in international relations, told ThinkProgress that the order is keeping him from his wife, who lives in Iran.
Roozbeh said he met his wife there about a couple years ago. They had a legal marriage in Iran in June of last year, and decided to hold off on having a small ceremony with friends and family until his wife was able to come to the states.
Her application for permanent residency was approved on January 17, just three days before Trump’s inauguration, and they were informed that she needs an immigrant visa to enter the country. But since Trump’s order, it’s no longer clear that she will be able to come at all.
“We wanted to start our life together. She’s an architect, I was in consulting business, soon-to-be PhD student. We can’t do it,” he said. “I haven’t seen my wife for about seven months, and this, in a way, gives us two options. Number 1: I have to move out of the U.S. Or we have to get divorced. I don’t think the latter is an option.”
“If this continues, he’s not forbidding people to come over here. He’s essentially kicking out a lot of families from the U.S.,” said Roozbeh. “I’m very sad, very heartbroken by what he did.”
“I told my wife, Mr. Trump gave me another reason to love you more. This is definitely not going to change our relationship. It might make it physically more distant, but we’ll get through this as well.”
More at Think Progress.
Toddler Trump, by Sham.
Everybody’s talkin’ about it, the firing of Sally Yates. Before I head into town today, I want to take a somewhat different focus on this – language. Language is important. When you can’t look at the person saying something, language provides all the vital clues we need to analyse information received. Here it is, click for full size:
This goes right back to the post on Trump’s constant assertion that he’s smart, super smart, genius smart, the smartiest of the smarty pants, the bigliest IQ ever, and his complete lack of a vocabulary, in spite of all that smart. The article linked in that post goes into detail, including analyses of Trump’s favourite words, of which, one is the word weak. I’ll concede that Trump is smart in the same way Wile E. Coyote is smart. Trump is no Roadrunner.
What concerns me in the above missive though, is the use of the word betrayal. Trump’s order isn’t, and wasn’t legal. Ms. Yates didn’t betray her office, or anyone else, but that’s language that is highly disturbing. When you use betrayal, traitor and traitorous is far behind. In a post yesterday, I asked people to note the use of the word comply. All these not so small signals are mounting up to be a screaming red alert. The fact that we’re now under a fascist dictatorship could hardly be more clear, and that’s being advertised, loud and clear at every opportunity. There is no “reasonable” in this, there’s no “necessary” either. What is there is yet another Trump Toddler Tantrum, screaming in disbelief that anyone could have the spine to not only disagree, but stand up to him. Ms. Yates was fired, not disappeared, but it’s only been two weeks. This is not going to get better.
The language is there. The signs are not only there, they are screaming. It’s full red alert, and that fact is going to slip right by way too many people. There’s already a move across the land to shut down any and all who protest. Here in my state, it’s been made legal to run down protesters. Hundreds of protesters and journalists in Washington are sitting under felony charges. Protesters in Denver were told they didn’t have a permit to exercise free speech legally. And so on, and so it is going. We are moving inexorably into a state where the words betrayal and comply are going to have a terrible weight, and the sword of Damocles is upon our heads. Speak now. Speak loud. Be Strong. Be Brave. Reject Silence. I understand scared. I’m scared. I’m wearing those pants into town today, into the heart of nDakota. Yeah, I’m fucking scared, but you all give me courage, and I wrap that around me like a cloak, and keep that strength and love and trust close.
From Charly, gorgeous little dinosaurs, so bright! Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, the lovely case she made for chalk. Click for full size!
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
House Finch. Click for full size.
© C. Ford.
They arrived, just in time to accompany the pants™ and myself into town tomorrow. The Tyrranophobia is dark, a swirl of tobacco and opium, with a slash of jarring black cherry, or something like. I forget what’s actually in it. The Cryophobia I’m in love with, it’s like wearing clarity wrapped in Juniper. Of the samples, Debauchery won my little black heart. Spice, a hint of orange and clove, all rather debilitated and languishing. *Happy*
Click for full size. They’re ready for wearing tomorrow. There’s a ‘Fuck Trump’ on the side of the center seam between the pockets. Didn’t quite show.
© C. Ford.
Photo illustration by Sagmeister & Walsh. Set painters: Colossal Media.
The rethuglicans were floating on a wave of frenzied victory, assured in their ability to bend Trump to their will. They could finally institute all the terror, hatred and bigotry they wanted, and maybe finally get that theocracy, too. As well as the unfettered ability to be as corrupt as they wished. Unfortunately for them, the taste of fear is on their tongues.
Rather than the hoped-for collaborative new relationship between the White House and Congress, GOP officials complain that Trump is brushing aside their advice, failing to fully engage on drafting tough legislative packages on tax reform and Obamacare, and bypassing Congress by relying on executive actions, something they frequently complained about under President Barack Obama.
At the same time, Trump’s unilateral moves continue to blindside Republicans and direct the national focus toward topics many in the party would rather avoid, whether that’s how to pay for building the border wall with Mexico, warming ties with Russia, investigating false claims about voter fraud or, most recently, implementing sweeping new policies on refugees and visas.
Just about anyone could have told you that it’s not possible to control a narcissistic maniac with delusions of grandeur. It’s not as though any of that were some kind of secret, you all knew this well before hand, but you just couldn’t resist the chance to eat the country whole.
Denver Police Commander Tony Lopez (YouTube).
Free speech, now illegal without a permit, so sayeth the cops.
Protesters at the Denver airport over the weekend were told by police that it was illegal to exercise “free speech without a permit.”
Denverite reported that over 200 people gathered at the Denver International Airport on Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.
In video posted to YouTube, Police Commander Tony Lopez can be seen advising demonstrators that they are in violation of the law.
“Stop doing anything that could be construed as free speech without a permit,” he explains.
I expect this glurge of nonsense just spilled out without thought, but still, it points to the ongoing lashing of the whip aimed at all those who protest. Of the 200 protesters in Washington who were hit with felony charges, one case has been dropped. The others are facing prison a/o outrageous fines of $25,000 dollars. Land of the Free. Right.
Via Raw Story.