Someone anonymous bought me paid time, with the note, "I love your bird photos," which is a) kind, and b) gives me incentive to *take* some bird photos. And other photos. And, as a necessary corollary, walks.
Before that, I need to find my walking boots, one of which is in Some Bag Or Box, and also possibly buy other boots (because snow), which is always somewhat tangled because I have ridiculous calves and ankles.
But meantime, I can organize my tags! And post other things. And so on.
supergee, aka Arthur Hlavaty, who I was never close to but enjoyed, died a day or so ago. He wrote engagingly, both on Dreamwidth/LJ and other places, apparently knew like, everyone in SF fandom. His wife's post on it, and Kalimac's reminisce.
He was very much a fanzine fan, and had a life and a half in various ways. He was quietly who he was, and lived his life as that; witness his family, for example. As I said, I liked him, in a "ships passing in the night" sense, and I'm mostly posting about it because... Well, people matter. The people who make up community, who are in the same places.
(Also, writer John Varley has probably died, though I haven't seen a definitive post on that yet. I've enjoyed what I read of him, but he was never one of the ones I really *connected* to.)
Books The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier. Lit fic about a woman born in late Renaissance/early modern Murano and her family of glassmakers. They and their contacts magically live into the present through unexamined time skips (no other magic is involved). Interesting family and historical drama and obviously reasonably well studied but although it was good it was super light as a read. It Doesn't Have to Hurt: Your Smart Guide to a Pain-Free Life, by Sanjay Gupta M.D. This was more interesting and potentially useful than I expected. Some of it is directed to people with different pain problems but some of it is useful for folks like me who have demonstrated physical causes for pain. I may have to buy a physical copy to mark up and perform some of the exercises.
Music Víkingur Ólafsson, Opus 109 (Beethoven | Bach | Schubert). I'm not as familiar with the Beethoven and Schubert but I love his Bach, always.
This is correct. The document is very clear on that point. But here’s more from Anders:
The United States sees it as a strategic priority… that MAGA movements come to power in Europe, and they intend to use the means that they have to support such movements in the fight against the current centrist governments.
These are some very dramatic statements that have raised deep questions about whether there is any foundation for NATO to function going forward if the United States sees it as a strategic priority to undermine the governments of other NATO countries. …
It’s really hard to see how there can be an alliance any more. The reality is that the views expressed in this [policy document] are in many ways identical to the Russian viewpoints on Europe and the Russian goals of regime change in European countries.
He further discusses the document’s demands for ‘free speech,’ in the sense of ending social media moderation and opposing the exclusion of hate speech, the lifeblood of MAGA fascism. There are several demands in the document around these topics, which he sees – correctly – as focused on helping Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg push MAGA/fascist propaganda into Europe through their algorithmically-driven propaganda machines.
Elon Musk’s “X” is the bigger threat, of course. As Nielsen puts it: “If you’re European, then it is a national security priority to stop using X.” Elon Musk bought Twitter to turn it into a fascist propaganda fountain, as opposed to Zuckerberg’s primary intention of making as much money as possible, working with fascists if that’s what gets the job done.
I have, of course, been saying that it’s time to stop using X since a few months into Elon Musk’s takeover of the site because of this exact reason, but, well – who the fuck listens to me?
Anders’s final key takeaway here is that this document doesn’t show a MAGA-led US deciding not to care at all about Europe, but instead shows a US deciding to care very much about Europe – mostly western Europe – with the specific and stated intention of installing MAGA governments, telling Europe that they must be MAGA – fascist – to be allied with the US.
This move would be an extension of what MAGA see as “their” western hemisphere, which other than western Europe means North and South America, including Greenland.
Naturally, this process would include granting Russia and Trump’s second-best pal Putin their own sphere of influence in the east. This portends the US’s impending betrayal of Ukraine, and later, a betrayal of the Baltic states, Poland, probably a couple of others (Moldova? Romania? Bulgaria?) as well.
But why? Does Trump love Putin and Orban that much?
I believe It’s more than that, and more than Trump’s ego, believe it or not. It’s more than his desperate longing to be a dictator and it’s more than his sheer will to steal every dollar in sight. Trump and MAGA, well… they are definitively fools, morons, white nationalists, imperialists, longing for a white imperial past. But I still think that Putin has more choate strategic plans than Trump, and I still think Ukraine is a climate war, so…
…shall I post this line again? Sure, I’ll post this line again. Here’s what I think Putin really wants – not what he’ll get, what he wants. It’s a minimum goal, to “secure” the nation:
That’s oversimplified, of course, but this is a small map and a big thick line. The reality would be far different, and most likely more like existing national boundaries, but still: it gets the idea across.
Meanwhile, when Russian maximalists and propaganda shills talk about how “we should march all the way to Paris” – which they do, repeatedly – here’s what I think they want:
And what do these lines have in common?
Mountains.
Tall, easier to defend, mountainous, migration-blocking borders.
It’s simple-minded in a lot of ways, I suppose, but so is keeping the border at the Rhine and that kept French foreign policy busy for a few centuries, so border politics don’t have to be all that complex.
Putin et al – they know climate change is real. Trump’s a decaying fool and might not know now if he ever did, but Putin? He knows. But heading a petrostate dictatorship with lots of far-northern land? He doesn’t want to stop it, because it’s the outsourced expense of allllllll Russia’s money, and if billions die, well, that’s the cost of doing business.
I call map one Putin’s Wall. Map two? Let’s call it Solovyov’s Wall, since as far as I can tell he’s the most famous proponent of “marching all the way to Paris.” Soloyvov’s Wall isn’t attainable – it won’t happen, it’s (ugh) aspirational – but I do think Trump wants to give Putin his wall, and that Putin has enough trust in Russia’s ability to handle MAGA that he’s willing to let Trump and his replacements handle the west.
Personally, I think MAGA has enough interest in a semi-mythical White Europe that they’re willing to do it. As long as they’re lead by the right – white, fascist – governments.
Hence, this hideous betrayal of a document.
That said, let me be real clear about something: On their own, Russia cannot attain Putin’s Wall. It’d take a complete American betrayal and European capitulation for them to have any chance. They cannot do it alone.
But thanks to MAGA and Trump, they’re on the edge of getting that American betrayal. They want to push that betrayal to completion. If they get it, then they’ll help the US make MAGA happen in Europe, in order to get the second necessary condition of European collapse and capitulation.
Russia’s no match for the EU as a whole. But torn apart? Picking off one little country at a time is… it’s not easy, it’s absolutely not, but they’re willing to kill as many of their own as is necessary for as long as is necessary to do it. Particularly if they’re ethnic minorities. And since nobody wants to flee a climate disaster to a war zone anyway, so he wins either way. Whether deterred by mountains or by war, refugees would go elsewhere, or not at all.
And that’s why I think this is a climate war. Not a war triggered by climate changes in Russia, but by Russia wanting to keep oil and gas going forever and keep out the people that will starve and kill.
You noticed Iran saying that Tehran will have to be abandoned as a capital, didn’t you? It’s more corruption and incompetence than climate change – but it’s a bit of all three. Climate change has moved the timetable. Made things worse. And yet, we’re just getting started.
So, then. Where are we? Ah, yes. How this all plays out.
There’s a bit of a feeling out there that Trump is weakened and even some who think that this nightmare is… more or less over. That Trump is a “lame duck,” that there is no MAGA without him.
That’s partially true. Trump is weakened. MAGA is, too, and they’ve been dependant upon his stardom – and fandom – to reach critical mass. They will be badly wounded – but not out – once he goes.
But none of that means this is over. The more trouble MAGA and Trump think they’re in, the more Trump and MAGA will lash out, trying to push their fascist power fantasies into existence. We will all see more betrayals, more sabotage, more oppression – the ICE army of white supremacists they’re working to summon into existence, funded by the so-called “big beautiful bill,” will actively work to dwarf the violence and abuses we’ve seen this year.
It’s their vision of the future, and they’re going to fight for it. It’s what they want, it’s what they’re all in to get, and it’s what they will do anything to achieve.
And they will not go down quietly. Take heart in the recent massive election shifts. Take heart in Trump’s decay and weakness and failing… opinion polls. Take heart in the America First/MAGA civil war. Take heart in all of it.
But do not, for a moment, think this is actually over.
We had the mold guy in last week to look at the drywall behind the dishwasher. Turns out it does have mold but it's very mild and only a very little over baseline. Still, it has to be remediated and we now have a plan and dates. The two weeks after Christmas will be mold remediation.
If things go as planned, we'll have the fridge, pantry, and stove/microwave available. We also have a sink in our wet bar but it'll be hard to wash anything of any size. I foresee a lot of plastic cutlery in my future. It also means we'll need to clean out the rest of the cupboards, though I don't think Michael has really thought about that, and a lot of decisions about what stays and what goes.
They'll have to tape off part of the breakfast area but we don't use that anyway and we'll still have access to laundry (and the cats to the Litter Robot, which is the important part). They estimate two weeks and it's going to run us about $7000 on top of the $1500 for the initial report.
Home ownership is not for the faint of heart or budget.
The truth is many of you have seen this before, but somehow I haven't *blogged* about it, so I'm doing a COVER REVEAL today! Muahahahah!
I would like to introduce you to the cover art for BONE & BLOOD, my upcoming retelling of the fairy tale Snow White, Rose Red. Dun dun dunnnnnnn!!!!!
LET ME TELL YOU THE STORY OF THIS COVER ART. :D
Cover designer Ravven, whose work I absolutely adore, did this as a pre-made cover. I saw it about 18 months ago now and I went OH. MY. GOD. I KNOW WHAT THIS COVER WANTS AS A STORY!
"BUT NO," I said to myself. "YOU ALREADY HAVE SO MANY PREMADE COVERS YOU HAVEN'T WRITTEN STORIES FOR! BE BRAVE, CATIE. STEP AWAY FROM THE COVER ART."
"but snow white, rose red," it whispered to me.
"AWAY, TEMPTATION!" I cried. "AWAY! SOMEONE ELSE WILL BUY THIS MAGNIFICENT COVER AND DO SOMETHING COOL WITH IT!"
"but snow white, rose red," it whispered to me.
I was, however, very brave, and didn't buy it.
So it haunted me for weeks. WEEKS. Until I went back and looked and it hadn't been bought yet and I was like 'OKAY FINE I UNDERSTAND A SIGN FROM THE UNIVERSE WHEN I SEE ONE!'
And I bought it, because I love the Snow White, Rose Red fairy tale almost as much as I love Beauty and the Beast (and it is, of course, in the same vein at BatB!), and I knew exactly how it would tie into my Beauty and the Beast book, ROSES IN AMBER, and...it was fate, honestly. It was just fate. And I'm very excited about the book, which I think is a particularly juicy rendition of SWRR, so I'm looking forward to getting it out to people in just three months!
There is a story of a widow woman and her two daughters, Snow White and Rose Red, who were the most perfect and darling little girls who had ever lived.
This is not—quite—that story.
Wise women do not bargain with fair folk, but there is wisdom, and then there is desire. Born of dark magic to a widow willing to make any pact to become a mother, Chloe and Yara live in a borderland between what is real in the World, and what is not. Their gifts—to hunt, to nurture, to craft and to kill—are granted by the woodland they cannot pass beyond...until the price of their birth is called due, and the sisters are separated, one to be a queen, and the other, a soldier.
But as the untold dangers of power weave threads into their hearts, threatening corruption and the destruction of their home, it is not the help of a prince, or true love’s kiss that will defeat a malevolent force, but the bond of two sisters whose bone and blood foretell a future that no evil could anticipate.
Once my mom got from the hospital to a rehab facility, she got a lot more There. (I mean, still has dementia, so not *that* there, but conscious and coherent.)
And, turns out, what actually actually happened, contrary to my last post, is that she sort of did have a stroke, but not really. A former stroke, in essence.
My dad is like, "I don't need help myself! So why should the light housekeeping people come just for me!" so I'm going to call him tomorrow and basically go, "They can help arrange the house for when mom comes home," which is, after all, true. But they can also help 89-year-old *him*, too. Cough.
Why this Indigenous winter scene is not what it seems. It's the work of Native artist Red Star. I recognize her work from feminist art bots but didn't know much about her. Now I want to go to one of the exhibits this post talks about.
A week inside the opaque court where CT immigrants learn their fate. A local Connecticut publication spent a week in immigration court (the executive branch "court system" for immigrants) and reported back on it. I didn't deal with this part of immigration practice at all when I was working for an immigration lawyer in the 1990s. I did prepare some asylum and refugee paperwork, and my boss was on the State Bar's Unauthorized Practice of Law committee, which dealt with the "notarios" mentioned in the article. That was apparently a dangerous proposition, enough that he had all his bills diverted to the office so that he couldn't be doxxed easily.
Meet the billionaire pushing taxpayer-funded school vouchers. The Washington Post profiles Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania billionaire who paid for Texas' voucher program. Not the taxes, which are from our pocketbooks, but the donations to political campaigns that made it possible.
The Fragile Heart’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays. I don't think of myself as fragile but I do have some unhappy associations with the holidays (my dad died during the Christmas season and my mother had crises at the holiday season on a regular basis, including going into hospice at that time). This is all good advice.
Today we took a museum day in Fort Worth and visited the Kimbell and the Amon Carter.
At the Kimbell, we saw the Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection exhibit. The works were Roman statues from the collection of a noble/royal Italian family. The interesting part to me was how many of them had been altered, mostly but not all in "modern" times, to make art that was interesting to collectors in the period that it was altered. (Modern in this case meant the Renaissance and later. One of the sculptures was altered in the workshop of Bernini's father.) My favorites were in the section of the exhibit on portraits of the Imperial family, where I learned that a lot of the statues believed to be of Imperial women were identified on the basis of their hairstyle alone, and now a number of them have been reconsidered. The curation was extremely good, with most of the statues having labels showing which parts were original, which parts were ancient sculpture pieces repurposed as part of the new statue, and which parts were later additions. Also, one of the statutes was left semi-restored so visitors could also see the conditions of the various sections of the works and how they were "restored" in the past.
We also saw Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes, which was on loan. I like most of the art but I don't care for his depiction of Judith. Spouse and I had a discussion about her wrist positioning: she looks like she's sawing Holofernes' head off but without sufficient force, never mind enough force to lop his actual head off. I prefer Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith, who looks like she's actually killing the guy.
Before we left we also visited our favorites, the Lee brothers and Caravaggio's Card Sharp.
After we were finished at the Kimbell, we went over to the Amon Carter for American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection. Butt, for those who don't know, is from the family that owns the HEB grocery stores. The art choices were interesting, like the Pollock landscape, but the curation of the exhibit didn't do a lot for me. Instead of contextualizing the individual pieces in artistic traditions or explaining why Butt chose them, the Carter's curation team had reactions from local artists, which were honestly a little banal for my taste. If it drives other folks to the museum, though, I guess it works. I enjoyed the seascapes and the landscapes, but the flat industrial paintings that Butt seemed to like did nothing for me. Probably my favorite from this exhibit was a study for a larger painting set at Broadway and 47th in New York, with a lot of bright signs.
We did look at some other art including a flat industrial painting of oil derricks off Galveston, which I really enjoyed because I knew what I was looking at, and a favorite Childe Hassam which shows flags on the Waldorf Hotel.
We had more than filled our two hours of museum time, which is how long they say you can absorb new art, so we went home after the Amon Carter instead of staying for late hours at the Modern.
Jill as Laila (second youngest child of Akkiz) Michael as Rayan (eldest child of Akkiz) John W as Ordille (youngest child of Clarissa) Thaddeus as Tridath (eldest son of Clarissa) me as Rhiannon (third child of Nurhu)
Books Some Danger Involved, by Will Thomas. First in a series of Victorian noir detective novels. The plot is interesting but the writing is both historically accurate in some very unpleasant ways and reeks of testosterone. I'm not sure whether I'll read the next one.
While it doesn't count for formal reporting, I did read about 1.5 million words of Star Wars AU fanfic while I was sick this weekend. Also I have 3 or 4 books in progress. I need to commit to one and finish it!
I haven't been very regular about doing these posts this year, but I've made up my mind for 2026 that I'm going to be more regular. We went to Ambercon Northwest in November and otherwise were super busy but did no shows, including David Byrne, which I have regrets about. But it was cold and I was in a lot of pain and exhausted, so I missed it.
Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.
The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
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