My god, there are child sex-trafficking tunnels under the White House!

So . . . [checks notes] sex trafficking tunnels were found under the White House?

Other than Greg Locke being a lying idiot, that can only mean one of two things:

1. Donald Trump didn't close them, so is complicit; or

2. Joe Biden is really great at that infrastructure thing.

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) June 28, 2021

It’s baffling at best to think that not only do these people exist that spew this kind of garbage.

Sex trafficking is THE QAnon talking point that reaches back eons. Demonizing one tribe for a completely untenable and unprovable crime of hurting children is archaic.

The weirdest red flag is lumping Tom Hanks, America’s sweetheart poster child for all things good, into the mix of child traffickers.

Pizza parlors. Underground tunnels. Oprah Fucking Winfrey?

I also saw this yesterday:

The problem is that lumping patriotism next to intelligence will confuse the group that it wasn’t meant for.

Right wing folks don’t see their views as superstition or ignorant.

So on we march and off we go into the name calling and denigrating behaviors.

Thing is, we can all agree on what is civil discourse. We can all agree that sharing time, a meal, a pint, a glass, are all relatively absent of issue.

The fucking problem is internet warfare and saying things in from a pulpit or one-way street. My comments section is wide open. Hose me down with criticism. We are not so different. We all bleed red, eat, breathe, poop, etc.

Could I offer you something to drink?

Could I offer you something to drink?
water? tea? coffee? 

Pop,
sparkling water …
a la kroy.

Could I offer you a beer,
a wine
red, white or rosé?

How ’bout a vodka
or
a whiskey? 

How about an orange juice or
a 
freshly 
squeezed
refreshing 
glass 
of 

tears. 

– by yours truly

inspired by a moment in France when Tina was looking out at a vista and I looked over and saw a tear on her face. “Is that sweat?” I asked. “Yeah,” she said, “Sweat,” as she wiped it from her cheek.

Your own … personal … mass produced … tortured Jesus

Automating salvation 🤖🙏 pic.twitter.com/wyHto2Mg7m

— MachinePix (@MachinePix) December 24, 2016

The video above is mesmerizing.

Twenty years ago, I was at a Catholic wedding sitting next to three young brothers who had never been to a church of any kind before that day. One pointed toward the crucifix and whispered to another loud enough for me to hear, “Who died?”

Exploding actresses

Oddly one of the funniest things I’ve watched in a bit.

Via TYWKIWDBI

I’m intervening because I love you

Yesterday, one of my closest friends called. He happens to be in town on vacation. Most of his family lives in Illinois, but he’s out in DC.

“We’re going to have to plan an intervention for my sister,” he told me. “Since I’m the one with free time, I’m calling facilities and insurance, and setting up meetings.”

He talked a bit about how stressful it is. And then he said this, “I know if it were me, and my family did this, I’d say ‘Fuck off.'”

The reason for the intervention isn’t the point. It may not be for what you think it’s for. My point isn’t to share salacious gossip. It’s to talk about the prospect and stress of intervening on someone’s behalf. To try and convince another person that their choices, their addictions and their lifestyle is hurting them and hurting the group.

A brief history of the devil

This little animated short about the devil and how he evolved over time is a fun little watch. Back in the days of my deconstruction, the devil and hell was the first thing to go. It’s simply one of the silliest parts of the Bible and if you zoom out and look at who’s responsible for the violence and evil, it’s rarely the horny dude, it’s the old man, old as time, with a narcissistic chip on his shoulder.

Now’s as good time as any to get off the internet

It feels so 80’s Or early 90’s
To be political

Where are my friends?
(Get off the Internet)
I’ll meet you in the street
(Get off the Internet)
Destroy the right wing
(Get off the Internet)

I’ll meet you in the street
(Get off the Internet)
Destroy the right wing

This is repetitive
But nothing has changed
And I’m crazy
Where are my friends?
(Get off the Internet)
I’ll meet you in the street
(Get off the Internet)
Destroy the right wing
(Get off the Internet)
I’ll meet you in the street
(Get off the Internet)
Destroy the right wing

Observations on our trip to Paris/Avignon 2021

• This trip was an impulse buy. We booked it because airfare was at its lowest that I could tell through next April/May. AND we met a new friend Kimiko in Chicago during the pandemic. She lives in Paris but stayed next door to our Chicago apartment during the lockdown. She offered up her extra room in Paris whenever we wanted to visit. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. 
• We were some of the first tourists back in France (thanks, Pandemic?). Typically crowded spots were almost empty (e.g. The Champs de Mars, the Place de la Concorde all the way to the Louvre, etc). It made it feel surreal; like we won a travel lottery. 
• Because so few are traveling yet from the US to France, our plane was only at 30% capacity. Tina and I both got a four-seat row and were able to spread out on the way there and back. 
• You need a negative RT-PCR test as well as your vaccination card to travel abroad. If you aren’t vaccinated, you need to provide proof of a reason to be there.
• In the past several trips, we view Paris as a place to get over jetlag and then launch into another area of the country. Before this trip, we booked AirBnBs in  neighborhoods further from touristy areas. And we tried to blend in as locals. But this trip was different. 
• Our friend Kimiko whom we met during the pandemic in Chicago was the difference. She was our insider scoop into new friends, restaurants, bars and experiences. 
• Kimiko is a unicorn. She’s that character in a movie who you think can’t really exist. She can break the barrier with a French person faster than you can say baguette. 

QAmom

This short film about how a guy’s mom went full on QAnon is a fun watch. It shows just how overly addicted a lot of people, especially of a certain age, are descending into a world of video addiction that leads them to bizarre views and conspiracy riddled rants.

A friend of mine was just telling me that she was going to have dinner with another couple, and the guy who’s in his 40s, lost his job at the beginning of Covid and spent his time watching Fox News and then moved into NewsMax and OAN. He’s full on Covidiot and very vocal about it.

Another friend was telling me that her coworker at a prestigious commercial real estate management firm started going into a full-on QAnon rant on the phone and she had to tell her to stop and then had to tell HR to let her know that she can’t talk like that with their clients.

People are losing their goddamn minds, and it’s because YouTube and social medias are dragging them down with them ship.

Carlos A. Rodriguez is the kind of person we need more of these days …

My brother and I were talking on the phone last week. We talk often. We’re best friends.

We were discussing a religious perspective. I was saying that one person’s advocation for God is similarly worded criticism of it.

For example, if you say, “Look at how God has blessed you. You have a great life and your history shows just amazing God has blessed you.” My interpretation of that will often be, “Well, why didn’t he bless umpteen other people?”

To play favorites with your children, if that’s what we truly are, is an unflattering behavior trait. If I won the lottery of being born in America and adopted by great parents who raised me superbly in the late 20th century with amazing healthcare options, unfettered opportunities and endless possibilities and another child was raised in foster care or born into great poverty during any time in history, I tend to wonder if the arbiter of blessings is a overly stingy.