Looks like it's time for me to leave Beige.party. Can anyone recommend a decent, non-censoring instance?

I hate censorship. This will be my last post here.

Not a normal cat pose.

#cats #caturday #CatsOfMastodon #kitten #photography

Just used DuckDuckGo's NoAI to search for the lyrics to a popular song.

Nothing relevant came up.

So I threw quotation marks around it to force a more specific search.

NOTHING. No results AT ALL.

#Search #NoAI

It kills me that government officials get the best health care for life, paid for BY US, which WE didn't get to vote on. They just gave it to themselves.

While at the same time hundreds of thousands of us die every year because those same officials won't allow a national health care system.

They're literally killing us, while stealing our money to benefit themselves, their families, and their friends. That's what you do to cattle, which is what we are to them.

Explain to me why we're not rising up and giving them what they deserve.

#Trump #Politics #Healthcare #MedicareForAll #GeneralStrike

Will the people of the world revolt against the oligarchs when it becomes clear to them that we're all going to die from climate change?

It's amazing how BORING most of the internet has gotten under capitalist ownership.

And how successful they've been at turning it into crack. Unsatisfying crack, to boot.

#internet

The one thing I regret about Mastodon: I don't know ANYONE here that I know in person. I've tried again and again to get friends and family to start Mastodon accounts, but so far not one of them has. Not even my own son!

#Mastodon

"President Donald Trump has rejected Iran's conditional proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, telling aides he expects to resume bombing the country after November's midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, quoting unnamed U.S. officials."

Never give a bully power. He'll abuse it every time.

...on second thought, never give ANYONE power. Power corrupts!

We've had a lot of Presidents. On the whole, do you think the Presidency has been a net positive in the last fifty years? Does the system work? Or is it time to think about replacements?

If the American political system was a car, would it be totaled?

#politics #news

Sleeping brothers holding paws!

#cats #catstodon #CatsOfMastodon #kittens #photography

Can anyone suggest a reason to have a sniper base in Washington DC—much less two—that ISN'T to murder protesters?

I mean, what other purpose could there be? What's the excuse for spending billions of our taxpayer dollars for massive sniper bases on our own land?

I'd really like to know.

I'd also like to know why nobody is asking Trump that question.

#Trump #Snipers #MilitarizedDC #Revolution #GeneralStrike

Shh don't wake the kitten! ❤️🥰

I'm having mixed feelings.

I really like a song that a band did a long time ago. I've been thinking of checking out the rest of their music for quite a while.

But I just looked that song up, and it turns out that the composer (who is also in the band) thinks it's shit. She deliberately composed it because the music label demanded a single, and she thinks that anyone who likes it is a moron.

So: I have mixed feelings.

#music

The new giant military complex Arch de Trump with sniper stations and drone launching facilities all over the top will be approximately two miles from the giant new military complex Trump Ballroom with sniper stations and drone launching facilities all over the top.

A sniper can shoot targets approximately 1,100 meters away. A mile is 1,600 meters. So between those two bases snipers should be able to kill...lots and lots of Americans.

But that's okay. We're used to living under the eyes of snipers.

Here's a map of the approximate death zones we're paying to construct in the nation's capital. Please note that this represents approximate areas subject to sniper fire; drones, of course, would cover the entire map and considerably more.

#ArmedDC #SniperBases #Map #Trump #Fascism

And it looks as if this is all going to hit right as winter gets really cold. I remember the heating oil shortages in the 70s; we spent a lot of time shivering under blankets, and my father got a kerosene heater to run in the living room. We burned a lot of wood in the fireplace, too.

I don't have a fireplace in my apartment, but I'm seriously wondering how we'll all keep from freezing this winter!

Not to mention the food shortages...

It seems to be an inherent human trait to be unable to believe that change is possible—even though it's actually inevitable. There's a good chance that we're rapidly heading towards a global depression which will make the Great Depression seem like a picnic. But everyone keeps sleepwalking along as we get closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.

The shock of going over just might wake the people up...or trigger one hell of a bloodbath.

I was trying to think of a name for the new Depression, if/when. And then it came to me. It's obvious: The Trump Depression. In all of history, I don't believe that there has been an economic disaster which was so utterly attributable to one man!

#Trump #Politics #inflation #TrumpDepression

Quasit's Daily Book Recommendations: "Songmaster" (1980) by Orson Scott Card

Age Range: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction

I don't like Orson Scott Card. He's a homophobe and a religious bigot. Which is why I felt schadenfreude when his talent dried up and went rancid.

But he did write a few good books before he curdled. "Ender's Game" (1985) was one, of course. "A Planet Called Treason" (1979) was another. And "Songmaster" is a third.

As with his other early novels, it's a tale of deep and powerful emotion. Ansett is a very young boy who is adopted by the Songhouse to be trained to possibly become a Songbird; these are singers of such surpassing ability that they are human treasures beyond compare. He lives in a vast space-travelling empire run by a single ruthless conqueror named Mikal. When Mikal asks the Songhouse for a Songbird, Ansset is the one who is selected to serve that role...eventually.

["I want a Songbird," Mikal said.

Nniv said nothing.

"Songmaster Nniv, I conquered a planet called Rain, and on that planet was a man of great wealth, and he had a Songbird. He invited me to hear the child sing."

And at the memory, Mikal could not contain himself. He wept.

His weeping took Esste and Nniv by surprise. This was not Mikal the Terrible. Could not be. For Songbirds, while they impressed everyone, could only be fully appreciated by certain people, people whose deepest places resonated with that most powerful of musics. It was known throughout the galaxy that a Songbird could never go to a person who killed, to a person of greed or gluttony, to a person who loved power. Such people could not really hear a Songbird's music. But there could be no doubt that Mikal had understood the Songbird. Both Nniv and Esste could hear his inadvertent songs too easily to be mistaken.

"You have damaged us," Nniv said, his voice full of regret.

Mikal composed himself as best he could. "I, damaged you? Even the memory of your Songbird destroys me."

"Uplifts you."

"Wrecks my self-composure, which is the key to my survival. How have I damaged you?"

"By proving to us that you do indeed deserve a Songbird. You know what that will do, I'm certain. Everyone knows that the Songhouse does not bend to the powerful where Songbirds are concerned. And yet-we will give you one. I can hear them now: 'Even the Songhouse sells out to Mikal.'" Nniv's voice was a raucous and perfectly accurate imitation of the speech of the common man, though of course there was no such creature in the galaxy. Mikal laughed.

"You think it's funny?" Esste asked, and her voice pierced Mikal deeply and made him wince.

"No," he answered.]

The story covers all of Ansset's life, which is a long one. There is love, murder, betrayal, pain, and death. It is, as I said, a powerful story. But I'll throw in a caveat.

Card is (and was) a homophobe. I've heard it suggested that he's also a self-hating homosexual, but that's neither here nor there. Male homosexuality has played a role in several of his novels, at least. And the way he handles it is somewhat...disturbing.

Well, at least it is to ME. But I'm a cis male hetero, so my understanding is no doubt limited. I hope that I'm not homophobic; I believe I'm not. But presumably I'd be the last to know.

That said, "Songmaster" includes a gay relationship with ends in what we're apparently required to call "self-deletion" these days. So...there's that.

The book is still in print, and available as an ebook from the usual sources. I've seen it reasonably often in used book shops. It's not available to borrow from the Internet Archive unless you're disabled, but your library might well have it. If they don't, they should be able to get it for you via interlibrary loan.

Again, it's a powerful book. I've dreamed about it a few times. The way that song and culture are handled is unique and memorable. If the arts interest you, you'll probably find it fairly enthralling.

Happy reading! 🤓📖

Here's a complete spreadsheet of all the books I've recommended on Mastodon to date (along with links to each post):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSzubtaPojvprNwZCeR6N4xzCpZzMeb4xrrEHPtk6Bvx3RGj1Bxdg2KWY0CcjHjxUfMTGTF1eYpyoFn/pubhtml

#Books #Bookstodon #ScienceFiction #BookRecs #BookRecommendations #DailyBookRecs #QuasitBookRecs

I didn't know that billionaire Robert Kraft is in the Epstein Files. Nor did I know that he was arrested for sex trafficking, only for the charges to suddenly be dropped!

Time for him to learn about the Streisand Effect.

#RobertKraft #FreePalestine #Mackelmore #EpsteinFiles

One of the things I like best about Mastodon is the culture here. The usual nastiness, snark, and put-downs are out of place.

I value that. It helps make me a better person, I hope.

#Mastodon #SocialMedia

When did it become a thing to start calling politicians "Leader"? "Leader" Schumer, "Leader" Jeffries, "Leader" Thune, "Leader" Johnson...they used to be called "Speaker of the House", Majority whip, minority whip, things like that.

"Leader" is like "Homeland"; it sounds fascistic, even German. Yet the whole media seems to have adopted it.

Why?

#Politics #Language