E l a i ₊˚.⋆ 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

My overall take on Dick Cheney is that any non-sociopath old enough to remember the aftermath of 9/11 knows that under absolutely no circumstances do you gotta hand it to Dick Cheney.

William B. Bader, official who helped uncover CIA, Defense abuses, dies at 84 In a long federal career, he investigated claims that led to the escalation of the Vietnam War.

www.washingtonpost.com/local/obitua...

Here’s my dad’s obituary if you’re interested and why he was particularly suited to write about the abuse of intelligence leading up to the second war in Iraq which led to Cheney firing him

My dad knew Cheney since he was fords chief of staff and would always say “i liked him then. Idk what the hell happened”
In the run up to the second Iraq war my dad wrote an article comparing it to the gulf of Tonkin and Cheney himself made sure my father was fired from his gov job

Anyway he’s dead

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...

SCOOP

The admin is making it harder for male vets w/ breast cancer to get their care covered

The admin cites Trump order: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”

I got the memo laying it all out

www.propublica.org/article/vete...

@lornamcfindy Anyone else do that thing where you just decide you're not going to be sick anymore and decree that you're just going to just Do The Things, but then you'll do something innocuous like put a wash on on and nearly die in in the process and remember you are actually quite sick?

>>Satire Doctor Reassures Patient That Feeling Like Death Is “Within Normal Limits” [pic of doctor holding patient's hand while saying something]

Gwen Stefani was right. This shit is bananas.

Me: waits 6 months to see a specialist

Specialist: “You should see a different specialist.”

The original Far Side Cow Tools Cartoon by Gary Larson. A cow stands on its hind legs behind a table, staring blankly at the viewer from behind its heavy brow ridge. On the table are four crudely made tools: a lump, a lump with an offset crooked handle, a long stick with hooked prongs at the end, and a crude handsaw with irregular teeth. In the background a barn sits on a hill. Caption reads, "Cow tools."

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.

TFW you notice a really cool domain in the management console that you don't remember purchasing.

Cyndi Lauper dressed as the Statue of Liberty rental for what's going on

Cyndi Lauper, c. 1986

Abcnews graphic: surreal moment as coyote drinks water from skylight window on top of Los Angeles hair salon (Image of exactly that, except the framing is canted and as a result it looks like a coyote imprisoned in a glass square a la the phantom zone from Superman)

I understand why they had to stop him but I don’t agree with imprisoning him in the phantom zone

Discworld QOTD, from Equal Rites

“It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done. A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a half-brick in the path of the bicycle of history.”

In her journal, Octavia E. Butler wrote, "My pen and my paper, they comfort me—at least a little. They allow me to scream into utter silence. They focus my thoughts, they permit me to act when no other action is possible.” Keep writing.

letter from octavia E butler

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Started reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler today. In the book, it's March 2025:
Climate change & wealth inequality out of control
A horrible president's elected
There are MEASLES OUTBREAKS spreading across the US!

So Butler was basically a time traveler. Also explains Kindred.
#Booksky

"Maybe, but none of it matters. I won't be able to afford college. I won't be able to get a job or move out of my parents' house because no job I could get would support me and there are no safe places to move. Hell, my parents are still living with their parents." "I know," I said. "And as bad as that is, there's more." "Who needs more? That's enough!" She began to eat the bean salad. It looked good, but I thought I might be about to ruin it for her. "There's cholera spreading in southern Mississippi and Louisiana," I said. "I heard about it on the radio yesterday. There are too many poor people—illiterate, jobless,

homeless, without decent sanitation or clean water. They have plenty of water down there, but a lot of it is polluted. And you know that drug that makes people want to set fires?" She nodded, chewing. "It's spreading again. It was on the east coast. Now it's in Chicago. The reports say that it makes watching a fire better than sex. I don't know if the reporters are condemning it or advertising it." I drew a deep breath. "Tornadoes are smashing hell out of Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and two or three other states. Three hundred people dead so far. And there's a blizzard freezing the northern midwest, killing even more people. In New York and New

Jersey, a measles epidemic is killing people. Measles!" "I heard about the measles," Joanne said. "Strange. Even if people can't afford immunizations, measles shouldn't kill." "Those people are half dead already," I told her. "They've come through the winter cold, hungry, already sick with other diseases. And, no, of course they can't afford immunizations. We're lucky our parents found the money to pay for all our immunizations. If we have kids, I don't see how we'll be able to do even that for them." "I know, I know." She sounded almost bored. "Things are bad. My mother is hoping this new guy, President Donner,

will start to get us back to normal." "Normal," I muttered. "I wonder what that is. Do you agree with your mother?" "No. Donner hasn't got a chance. I think he would fix things if he could, but Harry says his ideas are scary. Harry says he'll set the country back a hundred years." "My father says something like that. I'm surprised that Harry agrees." "He would. His own ftahter thinks Donner is God. Harry wouldn't agree with him on anything." I laugh, distracted, thinking about Harry's battles with his father. Neighborhood fireworks—plenty of flash, but no real fire. "Why do you want to talk about this

From The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler:

March 5, 2025

In Parable of the Sower, in the year 2025, the new President Donner defunded science (p. 58) and there was a new measles epidemic (p. 38).

@blondehotcoffee on x [me, a people pleaser]: "no doctor that's okay, whatever type of blood you have is fine"

Commercials for prescription drugs would be better if the actors had to act out the side effects too. 💊

I wish there was a way to convey to some folks that they are privileged just by not having lived experience in trauma that is a part of everyday life for others, usually for folks from underrepresented groups.

It's hard to try to explain it unless you have lived it.

Will try give examples 👇🧵

onion is out of business

Chomsky is dead to me

b&w photo of Bruce with a nerd look. He's wearing a skinny tie, with his jacket draped over his shoulder. He's wearing Clark Kent glasses, which is appropriate for a superman.

Bruce Lee, 1960s

Photo of a tv. Onscreen a woman holds an axe with a periodic table visible behind.

Buffy is so old there were only 103 named elements, we’re at 118 now.

(Yes I pause every show that has a periodic table to see if its period accurate)

😢

Capybara on a magic carpet over nyc.

Woman with long dark hair

Anna May Wong — Man Ray, 1930.

Ultimate Retrocomputer