The snow here in the Seattle area started melting on Monday. Unfortunately most of the rest of the country is still experiencing much colder temperatures than usual, and then there is the disaster going on in Texas. So I’m feeling fortunate that right now we’re not worried about keeping warm or having safe drinking water.
Meanwhile, we have the Friday Five. This week I bring you: the top five stories of the week, five stories of interest to queers and our allies, five stories related to science fiction, five stories about the future of democracy, and five videas (plus things I wrote and some notable obituaries).
(click to embiggen)We’ve already reached the second Friday in February! Wow!
It has been getting colder and colder all week. We started getting snow Thursday. Overnight lows significantly below freezing, and much most snow is expected Saturday. And I live on a hillside with very steep hills the only way out of the neighborhood, so I probably won’t be leaving the house until next week when the temps are predicted to come back up.
Meanwhile, we have the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one story about why snow is such a catastrophe here, the top five stories of the week, five stories of interest to queers and our allies, five stories about the pandemic, five stories about threats traitos, five stories about bad people getting their due, and five videas (plus things I wrote and some notable obituaries).
They Stormed the Capitol. Their Apps Tracked Them. This story is not really about the murder mob, rather it is a fascinating and chilling example of what can be learned by aggregating anonymized ad network data. The graphics alone are worth the click.
Randy’s parody gets the best recognition…We’ve already reached the first Friday in February! Wow!
It’s been very rainy, but the temps have been just a bit higher than average, and it is starting to look as if this might be the third winter in the last 100 years where the daytime high never fell below 40ºF… Meanwhile, both my husband and I have been having extra bad allergy symptom all week.
Meanwhile, we have the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one special story to bring a smile, the top five stories of the week, five stories of interest to queers and our allies, five stories about the pandemic, five stories about threats to the future of democracy, five stories about the seditious traitors, and five videos (plus things I wrote and some notable obituaries).
And here we are at the final Friday in January. It seems as if it was only 10 days ago that we were still shaking off the vestages of 2020… oh, wait, we were!
It has been cold and damp all week. Sometimes so cold that there was the possibility of snow in the forecast. So far we have been spared a snowpocalypse, but it could still happen!
Meanwhile, we have the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one special story to bring a smile, the top five stories of the week, five stories of interest to queers and our allies, five stories about the pandemic, five stories about the seditious traitors, five stories about deplorable people, and five videas (plus things I wrote and some notable obituaries).
In keeping with last week’s announcement in this space that I’d decided to join those who were considering everything up until the moment the new President was sworn in as part of 2020, welcome to the first true Friday of 2021!
I took Wednesday off from work and spent a good chunk of the day watching the Inaugural. I admit half of the reason I did so was because I didn’t trust the nazis, traitors, and fascists not to cause some kind of trouble. I have to admit, I was a little surprised when, while Lady Gaga was singing the national anthem, that I started crying extra hard at the line, “that our flag was still there.” I mean, the flags that she pointed to at the moment were U.S. flag, but in the same space she was singing, exactly 14 days earlier, the Murder Mob had literally pulled down U.S. flags and raised Trump flags in their place. Full disclosure: I’m the kind of bleeding heart liberal who cries whenever I hear or sing the Star Spangled Banner under any circumstances. And I’m also the kind of bleeding hear liberal who was a boy scout as a child and I get incredibly, incandescently angry at people who disrespect the flag and don’t even know the flag code. As Stephen Colbert noted later that day, usually the Star Spangled Banner isn’t a cliffhanger, right? Anyway, as I have said elsewhere, defeating the grifter at the ballot box last November wasn’t enough; winning the two Georgia senate seats wasn’t enough; getting Biden and Harris safely inaugurated wasn’t enough. There is still a lot of work to do, and we have to stay engaged and be ready to hold our Representatives, Senators, and President accountable if they falter or fail to advance the causes of justice and equality. But I have to admit, for a day and a half it has been an incredible relief that some things have become boring, again.
Time will tell. Until then, we have the Friday Five. This week I bring you: the top five fun stories of the week, five stories of interest to queers and our allies, five stories about the pandemic, five stories about the seditious traitors, five stories about deplorable people, and five videas (plus things I wrote and some notable obituaries).
Trumpists, Here Are Your Terms of Surrender. Also, Fuck You. I feel the need to point out that the author of this piece was a Republican operative who has a whole lot of his own awful to answer for, but I think we have to–until they prove otherwise–accept it when people claim they have seen the error of their ways. And his list is really good.
Lucy telling it like it is.I’ve decided that the people who have been saying 2020 doesn’t really end until the Traitor-in-Chief’s term officially ends this coming Wednesday are on to something. So welcome to the 55th Friday of that most curséd year, 2020.
So, a bit over a week since a murder mob incited by the president and some of his political allies attacked the U.S. Capitol building, we’ve seen a second impeachment, thousands of national guard troops in the capital city, and a number of internet services have finally started enforcing their terms of service on rightwing people for threatening more violence. That last bit makes me hopeful that this timeline may be taking a turn toward the less awful than it could be. Or maybe I’m reaching delusional levels of hope.
Time will tell. Until then, we have the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one local story that has taken a major source of happy distraction from my day, the top five stories of the week, five stories of interest to queers and our allies, five stories about deplorable people, five stories about the deplorable thug still occupying the White House, and five videas (plus things I wrote and some notable obituaries).
That is a rhetorical question in two senses. I realize that a lot of people have their heads stuck in the sand (or elsewhere) who are shocked at the development. I had expected violence, I just hadn’t thought that the Capitol Police wasn’t prepared for it. In more uplifting news, in both of the Georgia senate run-off elections (one a special election to fill the unexpired term of another senator, and the other just to fill a normally up-for-re-election seat) the Democratic Party nominee in both races won. And this is significant for a whole lot of reasons. Reverend Warnock is the first African-American ever to serve as a senator from Georgia. He is only, after all these decades, only the eleventh African-American of any party and from any state to serve in the Senate. He is the first African-American Democrat to serve as a Senator from a Southern state. He also ran as an unaplogetic progressive Democrat in what has long been seen as a Red State. Similarly, Jon Ossoff is a young Jewish man who was elected to the other seat. At 33 years old he will be the youngest member of the Senate (which just seems weird). He also ran as an outright progressive. I really hope that the upper echelons of the Democratic Party take this to heart, and stop throwing their support in Red States to so-called moderates, who policy-wise are indistinguishable from Republicans in a bizarre belief that those kind of candidates can somehow fool Republican voters into crossing over. I firmly believe that if the progressive, black Democratic challenger to Mitch McConnell had been on the general election ballot instead of the bland, white, Air Force veteran milquetoast moderate, the McConnell would have either lost or come really close to it.
But let’s get on to the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one special video that is all upbeat and full of good news and I hope makes you laugh as much as I did, the top five stories of the week, five news stories that have a local connection for me, five stories about seditious traitors, five stories about deplorables people, five stories about the deplorable thug still occupying the White House, and five videas (plus things I wrote and one notable obituary).
This Week In News We Need Right Now!:
Killer Mike Knew Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock Would Win the Georgia Runoff – This is the first thing in several days that made me laugh in a way that had nothing to do with gallows humor; and his joy and enthusiasm brought happy tears to my eyes:
Whether it’s war and peace or public relations and gardening, sorting out the truth is a complicated endeavor when it relates to Donald Trump. Everyone involved in anything, no matter the size, no matter how stupid, seems to lie as a first resort, or to know very little, or to lie about knowing very little, or to know just enough to send blame in another direction, and the person in that direction seems to lie also, or to know very little, or to lie about knowing very little, but perhaps they have a theory that sends blame someplace else, and over there, too, you will find more liars, more know-nothings, and before long, a whole month will have passed, and you still haven’t filed your story about how the president’s attorney wound up undermining democracy in a parking lot off I-95 on a strip of cracked pavement in a run-down part of a city that ordinarily would command no consideration from the national political class or the very online public or the equally online mainstream media, which, when forced to look, found lots of reason to laugh.
“We stayed until 12 0’clock—not to ring the New Year in, but to hiss the old one out.” —Altoona Tribune, Pennsylvania, January 7, 1939We’ve reached the first Friday in 2021. Which means that 2020 is finally over. All 59 dumpster fire months of it.
Calendars are social constructs, and neither viruses nor hate groups are constrained by them. So we have no guarantee that 2021 will an improvement. But there is power in human perception, so maybe we can begin to make things better. If we can be hope.
But let’s get on to the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one special story that we need now, the top five stories of the week, five stories about people who definitely weren’t on Santa’s Nice List, and five videas (plus things I wrote and many notable obituaries).
We have reached the fourth and final Friday in December. This is also the final Friday in 2020, and year that I think everyone agrees needs to be over.
It also happens to be Christmas Day. In a normal year that would mean that likely most people wouldn’t be reading things online until later in the day, after much of the festivities are over. But most people should be staying home, opening presents over zoom or facetime or something.
Because it is Christmas Day, I had mixed feeling about what kind of stories I ought to include. In doesn’t help that every day there are worse and worse headlines about the crybaby-in-chief and his latest temper tantrum. But in the end, the news is what it is. So, this Friday Five I bring you: the top five stories of the week, five stories about science, five stories about people who definitely aren’t on Santa’s Nice List, five stories about the pandemic, and five videas (plus things I wrote and a notable obituary).
Click to embiggen (Do it! Read the small print on the bumper sticker!)We have reached the third Friday in December. And I’m still not finished writing this year’s ghost story!?!
This Saturday is our virtual Christmas party, where I need to read said ghost story. There are more than a few errands I need to get to this weekend, as well. And I need to try not to sleep most of the day away, if I can manage it.
But let’s get to the Friday Five. This week I bring you: the top five stories of the week, five stories about crooks & liars, five stories about the petty crime boss occupying the whitehouse, and five videas (plus notable obituaries).
Font Folly 