Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

How stupid are these people?

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

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Sunday Night Open Thread: Andy Kim Is A Good Man

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A little wind-down as we prepare for another week…

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War for Ukraine Day 683: A Brief Sunday Night Update

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Just a brief(ish) update tonight.

Before we get started, I have no idea what is going to happen with Secretary Austen. I will say I doubt that he’s going anywhere largely because there is no way to get a replacement through the Senate nomination process. The nominee for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, which is the #3 position at the Department of Defense, was nominated in July 2023. He’s not getting confirmed any time soon. Not because there’s a hold, but because the Senate GOP minority is just grinding the gears on the nomination. Austen’s replacement would, most likely, have a hold put on him or her by Tubberville or Vance or Cotton – and I expect it would be a her – until the Biden administration reverses the female reproductive healthcare policy and other policies that the GOP believe are “woke.” Ultimately it isn’t going to make a difference, because it is unlikely the US government, including the DOD, is going to be open five weeks from now.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Medium Cool – Cozy Mysteries

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight I thought we might try something different.  One of our BJ peeps is a cozy mystery writer, and I invited her to help start a conversation about cozy mysteries.  You may recognize Vicki from the recent post on Shelock Holmes mysteries.  The photo below is Vicki Delany on the occasion of publishing her 50th book!

So let’s see what Vicki has to say about cozy mysteries and then we can go from there.

What, exactly, is a cozy mystery?

by Vicki Delany

On one hand, that seems to be an easy question to answer. A cozy mystery is often described as a mystery novel or story containing no overt violence or sex on the page, or as a character-and-community based mystery featuring an amateur sleuth.

But I believe a cozy mystery is far more that than.

A crime or mystery novel without sex and violence is not necessarily a cozy. Plenty of intense psychological dramas have no sex and violence, but they can be very grim indeed. Books that are character-and-community based can also be dark and disturbing. Mysteries with a frightening supernatural or horror element, for example.

In my interpretation, to be a cozy, the story must have no sense of tragedy or impending doom.

People in cozies do not live tragic lives, and they don’t fear tragic happenings. They live in a very pleasant, close to idyllic, community, surround by good friends and close family. Not everything is perfect in their lives (how boring would that be?) but generally they are good and happy people.

Someone is murdered, and that’s never funny, but that person is (usually) not much liked by the community or strangers to it. Their death needs to be solved so that the perfect, orderly community can go back to the way it was – perfect and orderly. The characters live in an essentially good world that needs to be put back to rights. No human trafficking rings, child prostitutes, mob hit men, gangs, or assassins here.

A cozy mystery will never feature organized crime (unless handled with a humorous touch), child-endangerment or abuse, terrorists, or natural disaster. The murder is intimate and personal, and committed for personal reasons. There are no far-reaching or long-lasting implications. At the end of the book, order has been restored and all is once again right in their world.

This is dramatically opposite to a noir crime novel. In a noir the characters live in a dark and disturbing world. “Down these mean streets a man must walk who is not himself mean.” The criminal can be brought to justice, the crime solved, but the streets remain mean.

Cozy mysteries are not trying to make an important statement about the human condition, or hoping to change the world. A cozy mystery tells a story that attempts to be entertaining, that’s about people much like us (or like us if we were prettier, or smarter, or younger!) and our friends and family.

In terms of structure, cozy mysteries are very much ‘puzzle mysteries’: a game of wits between the author and the reader as to whether or not the astute reader can solve the crime before the amateur detective does (i.e. before the author reveals it). Clues must be laid down in such a way that the reader has a chance of reaching the conclusion on their own. The author lays red herrings in such a way as to hope to distract the reader from reaching the truth before all is revealed.

Cozy mysteries are about real people living real lives (except for that pesky murder bit), although writ large. Everything is exaggerated. The nosy neighbour is nosier, the ditzy friend is ditzier, the mean girl is meaner. And the handsome man is, well, handsomer.  Even better if there are two of them.

Readers who enjoy cozies often tell me that they read them to escape from the real world. They get enough bad news on TV, and sometimes even in their own life. Cozy mysteries really are an escape. Most (but not all) cozies feature a female protagonist, but they are widely read by men too, and I love that about them.

I began my career writing gritty police procedurals and intense psychological thrillers and I switched to cozies about seven years ago. I’m having a lot of fun with them. Keep it light, keep it funny, and have a good time with it.

The word I often use for the cozies I write is FUN. They should be fun for the author and fun for the reader as well.

What’s wrong with that? I ask.

So pull up a pull up a comfortable armchair or get out your deck chair. Light a fire in the fireplace, or slap on that sunscreen, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or something icy and simply enjoy the adventures of a cozy heroine and her friends as they try to put their world back to rights.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a cozy mystery.  If you have, chime in with your favorites.  If you don’t read cozy mysteries, what is your favorite kind of mystery?

Anyway, I’m not sure where this is gonna go, or how this is gonna go. I guess we’ll find out!

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Sunday Evening Open Thread: Suck It Up, You Babies!

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As someone else whose lived experience extends prior to 2016, I endorse this message [gift link]:

Nostalgia is a powerful political tool. Wielding nostalgia for a bygone era — one that is invariably mischaracterized — is a favorite weapon for fascist movements (Make America Great Again), harking back to a time before their nation was “polluted” by malign forces. In the United States, such nostalgia none-too-subtlety appeals to white Christian nationalism. Even in a more benign form (e.g., “Politics didn’t used to be so mean,” “Remember the days of bipartisanship?”) plays on faulty memories. If you really go back to study U.S. history, you would find two things: The past was worse, and conflict has always been the norm.

The past was simply not “better” by any objective standard. Economically, we were all a lot poorer. “In 1960, there were roughly 400 vehicles per 1,000 Americans, about half of today’s car ownership rate. In other words, a family in 1960 could afford a car on one income, but today they would have two cars,” Matthew Yglesias wrote. Tom Nichols has written extensively on the politics of false memory. (“Times are always bad. Nothing gets better. And the past 50 years have not been a temporary economic purgatory but a permanent hell, if only the elites would be brave enough to peer through the gloom and see it all for what it is,” he wrote. “This obsession with decline is one of the myths surrounding postindustrial democracy that will not die.”)…

You might rightly decry income inequality today. However, since 2007, income inequality has been on the decline. The 1930s? The Great Depression. You prefer the 1940s? World war. Then came McCarthyism and the Cold War. The 1960s? Riots, assassinations, the Vietnam War. You get the point. Though those who rail against modernity, urbanity, pluralism, tolerance and personal freedom in service of an authoritarian perch would like to turn back the clock, a perusal of history suggests now is the best time to be alive…

What we have not had before is a president who rejected democracy, attempted to retain power by force and wound up indicted on 91 criminal counts. So yes, four-times-indicted Donald Trump was worse than every president who preceded him. The resulting venom, violence and loss of faith in elections have taken a heavy toll on our democracy.

Where does that leave us? The past (especially the immediate past president!) was infinitely worse in myriad ways. (This is not to say that we don’t have our problems, from climate change to homelessness to suicide; we do, however, have more resources and knowledge to address these.) Conflict and even violence have been a constant presence in American life. But so, too, has been progress, albeit halting at times, toward greater freedom and prosperity. We generally are living healthier, longer lives. If nothing else, the 21st century is evidence that we are a resilient people.

So, as we look forward to 2024 be wary: Nostalgia, especially nostalgia for a time of less freedom, less opportunity and fewer rights for many of us, is the stuff of snake-oil salesmen. Instead, bet on American progress.

I firmly believe that life in America today, for all its obvious flaws, is vastly better than it was in every previous era for those of us who aren’t straight cis white men with some financial cushioning. The fact that white men with money currently own our major media has a lot to do with the perception that we’re in a state of decline.

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Eye Opening – How Soon They Forget

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🌼  If you don’t want to click on the twitter link.

Eye Opening

🌼

There is definitely not agreement within the ranks of the twitter legal eagles re: how the Supreme Court might rule in the 14th Amendment case.

I’m getting kind of tired of the folks who want to ignore the constitution and make up stuff that has to happen before the plain words of the constitution get to count.  Whether we like the result of following the constitution or not, I believe that following it is the right thing to do.

🌼

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Joshua Todd James – Heroes In Search of Justice and Truth

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Our featured writer today is Joshua Todd James.  Let’s give him a warm welcome!

If you would like your talent featured in Authors in Our Midst or Artists in Our Midst, send me an email message.  Don’t be shy!  I have no more Artists or Authors posts in the queue, so please get in touch if you would like to be featured.

Heroes In Search of Justice and Truth

by Joshua Todd James

Hello, and thank you to WaterGirl for this opportunity.

My name is Joshua, and I’m a professional screenwriter (WGAE) living in New York City. I originally moved to the Big Apple to be a playwright and did exactly that, but I discovered during that process that writers can actually be paid money to write movies, a marked difference from theatre, so I jumped into that right away. I love movies, so it was a natural fit.

I’m known for action/martial arts movies, and have one titled TAKE COVER coming out next year, starring Scott Adkins and Alice Eve. I have more than a few titles in development as of this writing.

For more updated information on that topic, subscribe to my free substack.

But I’m not here to talk about movies, I’m here to talk about books.

Before I loved movies, I loved books, especially genre books. I was that kid who basically grew up in a library and read EVERYTHING. Stuff I probably wasn’t supposed to read, I read. I went through paperbacks by the bushel.

I always wanted to write one or more like that. I also wanted to create something I could hold in my hand and give to my sons.

During the pandemic, when it felt like the world was ending, I decided to write a series I’ve always wanted to write before I shuffled off…  and hence came SOME ANIMALS.

SOME ANIMALS is about Jacob Kind, a synthetically created Companion. Companions aren’t able to hurt humans, but when someone murders his Primary, his owner, Jacob is falsely accused of the crime and forced to go on the run to save himself and find justice for his adoptive mother.

And that’s THE COMPANION CHRONICLES series. Short paperback novels of Jacob’s adventures as he wanders a future America pretending to be human and learning what humanity is while on the run.

It’s a sci-fi version of THE FUGITIVE, yes, but they’re even more influenced by the television shows of my youth… shows like KUNG FU and THE INCREDIBLE HULK, both of which featured wandering heroes in search of justice and truth. Those shows and the genre paperback thrillers of years gone by made me the writer I am today, I suspect. I hope to do justice to their memory.

There are five books published in the series thus far, and a sixth is coming in a few months. The titles are as follows:

SOME ANIMALS
MINORITY OF ONE
FREEDOM RUN
MAN IN A BOX
RENEGADE
DOMO ARIGATO, MISTER ROBOTO

Link to the series.

My substack.

The best thing you can do for an author you like, any author, is to leave reviews of their work everywhere you can. It’d be my honor if you so choose such for my work. I’ll leave you with blurbs, and again, thank you for this opportunity to share my work with you all.

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Sky Turd

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The 737-MAX has been in the news due to a door plug blowing out in flight, but there’s another story about the same plane family (not exact model) that you might have missed:

SEATTLE – Little noticed, days before the holiday break, Boeing petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration for an exemption from key safety standards for the 737 Max 7 – the still-uncertified smallest member of its newest jet family.

Since August, earlier models of the Max flying passengers in the U.S. have had to limit use of the jet’s engine anti-ice system after Boeing discovered a defect with potentially catastrophic consequences. The flaw could cause the inlet at the front end of the pod surrounding the engine – known as a nacelle – to break and fall off.

In an August Airworthiness Directive, the FAA stated debris from such a breakup could penetrate the fuselage, putting passengers seated at windows behind the wings in danger, and could damage the wing or tail of the plane, “which could result in loss of control of the airplane.”

Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing 15,000 American Airlines pilots, said the flaw in the engine anti-ice system has “given us great concern.”

He said the pilot procedure the FAA approved as an interim solution – urging pilots to make sure to turn off the system when icing conditions dissipate to avoid overheating that within 5 minutes could seriously damage the structure of the nacelle – is inadequate given the serious potential danger.

Adding yet another item to the flight crew’s workload instead of delivering a working aircraft is so on brand for the new MBA-driven Boeing that this would merit little more than a LOL if it weren’t for the possibility that a plane could fall out of the sky.  Also, nice to see that the regulatory capture of the FAA that’s been in evidence for the whole MAX program is still in place.  I guess the $2.5 billion that Boeing had to pay for the first MAX debacle wasn’t enough of an incentive for them to get their MAX shit together.  Maybe they’ll get it right after a few hundred more people die.

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