Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Methinks I've contracted a chest cold, or a head cold, feels like a chest cold. Lovely, I need to get blood work done on Thursday, and have a virtual appointment on Friday. I'll just wear a mask on Thursday. Also, apparently for most of this week.

I blame Breaking Bad, whose been under the weather of late. Or the subway.
God knows.

I did not go protest in the No Kings Protests yesterday, outside of the fact that I was feeling poorly and not sleeping well, so exhausted, plus digestive issues (one does not march with digestive issues in a huge city with no easily accessible bathrooms - it's just not done), and bum knees, with a sciatic nerve. The people doing it in their walkers, just protested outside of their homes on the sidewalk, not quite the same thing.

Not that I feel guilty or anything. (well maybe a little).

The official count is 12.1 million. Palantir is collecting data for the evil Empire (aka Trump Administration and his Republican cronies), so various sources have put up protections and aren't re-posting videos, photos, or addresses any longer. Things are starting to get heated in the US, and I'm not quite sure where its headed. I most likely have the same news resources that you all have, so we're kind of in it together?

Between the chest congestion, digestive issues, lack of sleep, sciatic nerve, and the news...I've fallen into a malaise of sorts and am finding it difficult to concentrate. As a result, I didn't get any of the things I intended to do - done this weekend. Oh well, I did at least do some exercises, took out the trash, and got a lot of water. (The water went out in my building on Friday night, so I went and picked up some.)

Did finish watching a few things of note:

1. Dept. Q on Netflix. Will it get a second season? Forbes thinks so, since Netflix submitted it for the Emmy's and doesn't tend to do that otherwise - also it got a good reception. But honestly, it's Netflix, so who knows?
It's a mixed bag, and I agree with the critics. Excellent performances, Mathew Good is rather brilliant in it, as is the rest of the cast. But, like most of these mystery series - it spends far too much time on the convoluted sadistic Case of the Arc or Lost Case, and not enough on the other mysteries. ( Read more... )

That said? Compelling characters, and I want to see more of them, and I liked them. Also I want more of the series. So...I was like all of the other critics willing to handwave the Lost Case.

2. Season 2 of My Buffy Re-watch

Take aways? Becoming Part II is a lot better than Becoming Part I, mainly for the Spike, Buffy, and Joyce scenes. Also the Drusilla, Jenny, Angel and Giles scenes. It's a lot more fun, and a little less on the campy/cheesy side.
( See more )

3. Murderbot I'm about five episodes in? Saw the latest at any rate, and kept falling asleep during it. It's a slow series. The books were too.
It's funny, but there's too much time spent on the space opera parody that the Murderbot is a fan of. Yes, yes, I get what the writers are doing there, but a little parody goes a long ways. I kept going to sleep.

4. Andor - it's almost too political for its own good. And convoluted. Reminds me a little of the second of the Star Wars prequels, which was also very political. I'm enjoying it, but my attention kept drifting today during it, which again may be due to an overall lack of focus on my part.

***

In the 60sF/10sC, wet and rainy. I've stayed in, since I'm a bit under the weather and tired. I'm supposed to go on a tour of Grand Central tomorrow with the big headhoncho, but I may cancel and just hide in my cubicle.
This chest cold is threatening to be annoying. Maybe it's just allergies?

Good news, is it is a short work week. I have Thursday and Friday off. So just have to somehow get through Monday through Wed.

On the day that a wannabe king held a military parade (allegedly) in favor of his seventy-ninth birthday [in reality it was for the Army's 250th Birthday and the army was in very poor spirits, shuffling down the road - they also protested in their own way by marching to Creedence Clearwater's Fortunate Son] - across the United States, in all fifty states and territories, and in and around Europe inclusive of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, etc, people marched and protested against the wannabe king, and all dictatorships, fascism and kings, peacefully, side by side, carrying signs and singing songs in protest. Shouting so all could be heard: This is what Democracy Looks Like!

Over 11 million [ETA: actual headcount is now 12.1 Million] or 3.5% of the overall population showed up in the US alone [as reported by Alt National Parks and those who counted on the ground and provided reports as they happened - they use drones, and handcounters apparently, and multiple by size of crowd and square footage of the area], more than any other protest on record in the United States. They marched in solidarity and peacefully. Waving signs. They marched in the rain. It was pouring in New York City and in the sixities. They marched in scorching heat, across the Southwest and in California and in Florida, and Mississippi, and Texas. Veterans marched up the Capital Steps, and elderly women from nursing homes came out in their wheelchairs and canes and walkers, to march in their small communities. They stood on sidewalks in Metropolitan DC waving signs, and along highways, in towns. They formed signs with their bodies along the beaches of California. And in Mountain Towns they shouted down the slopes. They came out in droves. Filling city blocks for as far the eye could see.

All chanting. No Kings. Impeach. Remove. This is What Democracy Looks Like.

From sea to shining sea. Every single State across the country showed up and protested the wannabe king. Every one.

While very few attended the military parade, which had prepared for 200,000 and got maybe 10,000 [ETA:8,900 was the official count, don't trust the broadcast news media - they are lying. It was 8,900.] if that. And many were people protesting it, discreetly.

NYC outdid itself, with about 25,000 by 9 am, after noon, it had risen to well over 50,000, among the largest protests in its history astonishing those who've gone to them. San Francisco got creative and made Human Banner that can be seen from the sky ...



The police stood silently by. Some helped and marched with them.



They protested in small towns across America. They protested on Long Island. They protested in Alaska. They protested in Boise, and they protested in Grand Rapids. They protested in Arizona and in Texas. They protested in Nashville, Tennessee, and Talahassee, Florida. They protested in Red States and in Blue States. They came out rain or shine.

The people came and stood shoulder to shoulder, shouting and waving signs.
No Kings! No Kings! No ICE! Everyone is legal here! This is what true Democracy Looks Like!

And those of us who watched, cheered them on, and were there in spirit if not in body.

Links:

NBC NEWS - No Kings Day Protests

ABC NEWS - No Kings

https://www.lohud.com/story/news/2025/06/14/livestream-video-of-no-kings-protests-from-across-the-us-how-to-watch/84200645007/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/no-kings-day-demonstration-protest-rally-trump-military-parade/

ETA:Mid-year estimates: U.S. pop is 345,275,807. Which puts 12 million at 3.5 percent. (If 3.5% of the population protests continuously, studies state they win. )

ETA:*Note a No Kings Rally wasn't held in Washington DC - and held instead in Philly, which had over 100K show up. Also people did protest in DC, they stood on the sidewalks holding signs in the Metropolitan Area, and some went to the parade to protest discreetly, but bravely, making their voices heard.

ETA: per the headcounters in their towns - posting on FB, it's reliable. They were on the ground and counting and got it from their local outlets.
( the headcount in various cities, towns and villages across the US for the protests - pretty much all the towns and cities came out to protest on Saturday, regardless of weather. Do not trust the broadcast networks - they are run by corporations. )

Hamilton is playing in the background.

The lyrics feel ironic now. More so then they did in 2015, which is saying something I guess.

Particularly the Mad King's refrains.

I've considered getting tickets to see it live. But I'm not sure I can sit for three hours in those seats?

Slept fitfully at best. Sciatica down both legs was bothering me due to IBS issues. Doctor referred me to physical therapy - but there's little a physical therapist can do about a sciatica resulting from IBS and knee issues resulting from arthritis. (I should know - I've seen physical therapists five to six times, about every five years it seems, sometimes every two. Not even sure my insurance will cover it now.) I know which exercises to do. I have six different analgesic creams. No, my problem is IBS, which has pretty much always been my problem.

I feel this need, after being on various social media platforms this morning and yesterday, to remind folks to be mindful, to be kind, and just because they can walk about and march and protest, doesn't mean everyone can or feels capable of it. There's something about posting on the internet that brings the self-righteous bully out in folks? I get that we may to persuade everyone to join us? But be mindful that not everyone can do the same things.

Found this excellent piece of advice on Face Book:



Yesterday, while taking my walk at lunch - largely to walk out the sciatic nerve and cricks in my knees and legs - I stumbled upon a large crowd hollering and clapping and cheering in front of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. This area attracts a lot of New York Street Performers - due to the fact that it is a large and for the most part unencumbered plaza.

So I found a portion of the crowd that was rather thin, and less rambunctious, and peer through the people to see what was happening. At the center of the crowd was a little girl, pale freckled skin, pink palsy shirt, and jeans, bent over and very still. Brownish blond hair sweeping down on either side of her face. She moved every once and a while, to lift her head. People were clapping near her, and there was a line of white men of varying sizes and ages lined up in her realm of vision - they may have been family members, most had beards, and were relatively young and sturdy and looked for the most part like tourists. Next to them was a man with dreadlocks, dark skin, and bright colored red and orange and black t-shirt and shorts, clapping and getting them to clap as well. As the crowd complied and clapped as well, cheering, music roared to life, and then another man in dreadlocks and a similar outfit, ran and did an acrobatic flip over the little girl's head.

I cringed, and walked away. Unsettled. I'm certain they wouldn't hit her - or come close. She's probably perfectly safe. But I found the whole thing oddly unsettling all the same.

Off to do stuff. Here's a picture:

Somewhat sleep deprived, but hanging in there?

I'm still in a reading slump. It may be somewhat affected by the amount of technical information I have to read at work daily on a computer screen. Very dry technical and legal information. Things like how many cubic yards of Permeable low-density cellular concrete (PLDCC) is required for a job, and what a credit should be in cost savings for not installing that many cubic yards. Add to that contractual information, which is a lot less interesting than the technical data, not to mention editing financial documentation and legal documentation.

Yeah, that may have an effect. And it probably explains why I am doing lots of fantasy audio books. Finished Crooked Kingdom - the sequel to "Six of Crows", which was a long, but ultimately satisfying conclusion to Six of Crows. I kind of fell for Kaz Brekker and Inej. The others, I was ambivalent about. Similar to the television series Shadow and Bone, actually. Although I think it would have been better if it had just focused on the Crows. The audio book works because it has different narrators for each characters perspective in the books, of which there are eight, two villains. Some are better than others - the Inej narrator is by far the best, and I kind of wish they were reading Kaz's pov instead of the guy reading Kaz's.

Struggled to find something to follow it with. Tried Peter Watts Blindside, a sci-fi novel about a group of oddities who are sent into space to confront an alien presence. Part philosophy, part morality, part hard sci-fi. It was dirt cheap, but also hard to listen to. The Narrator is good, but it's not holding my attention. Nor did Susannah Clark's follow up her popular novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel (which I also tried to read, gave up on, and watched the mini-series instead), Piransi. What is it about? I have no idea, I gave up after two chapters. Here's what I found on Google: ( Read more... ) Which I guess explains why I gave up on it? My brain has no room for it.

Finally decided on Graphic Audio Dramatization of another of the Kate Daniels novels, which basically have an entire cast - it's like listening to a radio play of your favorite books. And I've forgotten most of the story by now, so...

These are rather cheap - just cost me $9.99 a month. Because I have a subscription and with that you get a credit each month, and I had about five credits. So, I have about fifty books to listen to, plus free podcasts, etc.

Am plodding my way through Remarkable Creatures - I don't get why people recommended it as delightful and funny, and a happy book? Right now, it's very depressing, no one is happy, all the characters are trapped, frustrated, angry and lonely, and it just keeps jumping points of view. I thought it would just be two points of view? But noooo, it's about four to date. It may be more. Each time I think it's done with character pov, it adds another one. (Reminds me of Eternity Station in that respect, also GRR Martin). And outside of Tova and the octopus, I'm not really interested in them, and want to go back to Tova and the octopus. I've decided that maybe Cameron is Tova's missing son, but that doesn't quite work, so maybe not.
Look, I don't need to read a book - to get frustrated, trapped, angry and lonely...or mundane. Escapism it's not. We'll see how long I stick with this.

I'd read the Faire Folk book - but it's bigger, and not an e-book, so not conducive to reading on subways.

CNN Aired An Exclusive Live Broadcast of the Broadway Play: Good Night and Good Luck - adapted for the stage from the film of the same name. The reason they aired it is made clear upon the airing - at the very end, Edward R Murrow, the CBS News See it Now broadcaster who famously took on McCarthy, during the Black List and McCarthy Hearings, stands front and center in front of a screen displaying multiple screens of the news. He states in a halting speech, enunciating each word, with a slight tremor to his voice, "we've seen what happens when power goes unchecked, that's not the question before us now, the question is - what will you do about it?"

I was thinking as I was watching it live on MAX (I no longer have access to CNN), that evil is like a spider, sitting in the dark corner of the room, smoking a cigar, wih a red top hat and tails smirking. And asking in a whisper of a voice, low and barely audible, "what do you want?" And indicating with a smile - "come into my parlor my dear and I shall give it to you, with a price of course".

It's insidious, and shadows egos. Self-importance. Self-righteousness. Power. Fame. Fortune. Wealth. Beware the righteous, and the self-important, and most of all the arrogant and narcissistic hunting awards and acknowledgment and power.

I don't know what I personally can do to check the power or stop it. I've been pondering it. I can write, I can post, I can draw, I can paint, I can do my job at a public agency. And I can hope people listen.

People aren't very good at listening? Have you noticed that? Too busy thinking about themselves or what they are going to say next or how they'll respond. Too filled up with thoughts to hear...ones that lie outside of their own minds and brains. I tell people a story and they tell me their own back again, and mine....slides off unheard, lost somehow within theirs? The meaning gone. And they tell me theirs and I tell them my own, and it happens all over again from the other side - with their story being lost.

I did social group therapy once - and we were for the most part forced to listen, but everyone tended to flounder at it. Either they'd ask pointed questions, correct the person's choice of words or syntax or speech (which isn't listening by the way - it's judging, and helps no one), interrupt, direct the conversation to themselves, provide advice, try to fix whatever it was, dismiss it as already solved or playing the victim, but seldom did they listen.

And once on a fan discussion board - we fell into a discussion about writing carefully, and I thought - no that's not the problem here or not that alone, we also need to learn how to read carefully. And people don't? Too busy reading quickly, flying through or past the text, to see it clearly let alone truly comprehend it? Now, for example, raise your hand if you just skimmed this passage and oh so many others? Be honest? How many have you skimmed, jumping over words and phrases and reacting to a sentence here or a paragraph there - but not seeing the whole? I know I do. Try a little experiment, if you will? Read just one paragraph of a post, or the unhidden bit. Then take a moment, and read the rest later, has your opinion of it changed?

We live in an age of content overload, and we surf and read and look at so many things simultaneously. Texts fly by. Our memory of them fleeting or garbled. And more often than not - people just read blurbs. If I post something with information below a "cut tag" - how many will read what's below the tag, and just respond to the top of the post? Losing the point of it. Or respond to the post, without reading the comments below? We don't read carefully - and most mistakes are made because of it. They were on the discussion boards. 90% of the arguments online are the result of "miscommunication" or the inability to politely ask for clarification prior to snarking, judging or condemning.

I think the flaw in the human brain is a tendency to assume everyone thinks the same and perceives things the same? When no one does? And well...a failure to communicate as a result?

**

You'll have to excuse me, I'm exhausted. But the weather is shifting, and I'm hurting less all of a sudden - which means the arthritis isn't being pinged by the human weather vane.

I'm also frustrated with my fellow humans. And perhaps with myself and my own limitations. And a touch depressed, no more than a touch, as a result. But hey at least I don't hurt as much as last night. So maybe the back brace is helping?

It's a warm spring evening. The sky has cleared of clouds, and it's sliding towards dark, from twilight. Nine PM on the East Coast. But I can still see puffs of cloud moving slowly across the pale blue sky, lit from within by moonlight. Our swiftly turning planet in the vacuum of space, surrounded by stars and galaxies which far too many of us take for granted as we bumble upon it babbling and gurgling at one another as is our way.

Snagged from various places, mainly svgurl: 72 questions to ask a fan
(She says fangirl - but I just took Gender Identity Training (web module) this week and it kind of goes against the grain to use gender exclusive as opposed to gender inclusive language at the moment.)

Also, the Good News Report...

As always, good news is often in the eye of the beholder, but hopefully something makes you smile, outside of the link to the fan questions. Which I may or may not try to answer at a later date. I'm weirdly private about my fandoms.


1.Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers ‘overwhelmed’
Exclusive: Melbourne team demonstrates way to make the virus visible within white blood cells, paving the way to fully clear it from the body.

Via the Guardian

"Exclusive: Melbourne team demonstrates way to make the virus visible within white blood cells, paving the way to fully clear it from the body."

2. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sues Alina Habba, alleging ‘false arrest and malicious prosecution’. Alina Habba's criminal case against Ras Baraka collapsed quickly. Now, the tables have turned, and the Newark mayor is suing the prosecutor.

Via Democracy Docket

3.Judge says some migrants sent to an El Salvador prison must have a chance to challenge their detention. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide hundreds of migrants sent to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, the opportunity to challenge their detention and removal. The ruling is related to deportations ordered under the Alien Enemies Act.

Via NBC News

This doesn't apply to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man whose deportation became a focal point of Democratic resistance to Trump's immigration policies.

4. The Trump regime has returned a Guatemalan man who was improperly deported to Mexico, obeying a federal judge’s order.

Via Politico

5. More than a century after the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the most horrific episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, the city’s mayor announced a $105 million reparations package on Sunday. It is the first large-scale plan committing funds to address the impact of the atrocity. Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols on Sunday unveiled a $105 million reparations plan for the descendants of the Tulsa race massacre — the deadly 1921 attack by a white mob on a Black neighborhood.

ABC News

Via NY Times

( the rest )

Today, I wandered through the Urban Farm at the foot of Manhattan, in Battery Park. I also sat in the park on a chair on the grass beneath the trees, watching children play. It was a beautiful day, with a slight haze, most likely from the Canadian Wild Fires in the North.




It was a frustrating day, so I needed a break from it. As tempting as it is to regale you all with the details? I'll refrain.

Some bad news? Dochawk, you may or may not remember him from the ATPO_BTVS and ATS Fan Discussion Board? His two female cousins were victims of the flame-thrower attack in Boulder, Colorado. ( Read more... )

I'm trying to ignore the news for the most part - but keep stumbling upon it, whether I want to or not. Thank you, information age.

Been comforting myself by watching and listening to James Marsters Q&A's on youtube. I have a serious crush on that actor. I have crushes on several actors. Cillian Murphy is another one, so too is Hugh Jackman, Robert Downy Jr, David Tennant, Claudia Black, also Juliet Landau, Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis, Angela Basset, Jonathon Groff....I am notorious for actor crushes.

Marsters said something interesting in regards to a question about Whedon and separating art from the artist. ( Read more... )

Been rewatching Buffy as a comfort show - and it still holds up, and rather well at that. I just saw I Only Have Eyes for You - it's an episode that airs late in S2. I'd forgotten most of it. And forgot how good it is. The first few times I'd seen it - I hadn't thought much of it, but now, it resonates in a different way? The writers are commenting on multiple things - and it subverts various tropes. It's actually surprising the network let them do it - back in the 90s.
( spoilers for those who never saw it, is there anyone? )

***

I didn't sleep well last night. Ached. And I ache now. Digestive issues, I think? Although did many things in the hopes of counter-acting them. My failing was giving in and having ice cream (Malawi Coffee and Rose Almond both Indian flavors and locally made). I did everything else right - baked salmon with zuccini and summer squash, and lots of water.

Oh well, it is what it is. Hopefully I can get the restless legs to calm down enough to sleep.

Here's a nice photo to round out this long rambling post.