May 30, 1868 Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, was first observed some say [see May 1, 1865] when two women in Columbus, Mississippi, placed flowers on the graves of Civil War soldiers, both Confederate and Union. War widow Augusta Murdoch Sykes, one of the Columbus planners, pointed out that “after all, they are somebody’s sons.” It is now celebrated to honor all those who have died in America’s wars. “The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country….” -from an order from the Grand Army of the Republic ========================================================= May 30, 1937 1000 striking steel workers (and members of their families), on their way to picket at the Republic Steel plant in south Chicago where they were organizing a union, were stopped by the Chicago Police. In what became known as the “Memorial Day Massacre,” police shot and killed 10 fleeing workers, wounded 30 more, and beat 55 so badly they required hospitalization. More on the incident Watch a video of oral history with historic footage
(Both important stories. Of course, language alert, but definitely good reading here. -A)
Queer History 124: Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West by Wendy🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🌈
How an aristocratic garden-loving poet inspired the 20th century’s most experimental “love letter” ….. Read on Substack
When Virginia Woolf first met Vita Sackville-West at a dinner party in 1922, neither woman could have possibly predicted that their relationship would produce one of the most revolutionary novels of the 20th century. On the surface, they seemed like complete opposites: Virginia—brilliant, fragile, middle-class, and sexually timid; Vita—aristocratic, confident, adventurous, and sexually voracious. Yet their decade-long affair transcended a simple romance to become one of the most creatively fertile partnerships in literary history, producing a groundbreaking gender-bending masterpiece that still feels radical nearly a century later.
Let’s cut through the academic bullshit that often sanitizes their relationship and explore what really happened between these remarkable women. Their letters reveal a passionate connection that was intellectual, emotional, and unmistakably physical. “I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia,” Vita wrote in one letter. Not exactly the chaste “friendship” that some literary historians tried to paint it as for decades. Their affair challenged the conventions of their time, their social circles, and ultimately, the very form of the novel itself.
The Women Behind the Legend: Who They Really Were
(snip-More; it’s really good!)
Queer History 125: The Raw, Unfiltered History of Sapphic and Platonic Queer Cultures by Wendy🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🌈 Read on Substack
The Goddamn Poetry of Desire: An Introduction
The ancient world was no fucking stranger to same-sex love. While modern society often frames homosexuality as a contemporary phenomenon—something that emerged from the shadows of the closet into the damn light of day during the liberation movements of the 20th century—the historical record tells a far more complex and fascinating story. Long before we had Pride parades and marriage equality, we had Sappho of Lesbos and Plato of Athens, two figures whose works and philosophies have profoundly shaped how we understand same-sex desire.
Sappho Lesbos
The rocky shores of Lesbos and the philosophical gardens of Athens—separated by the azure waters of the Aegean—gave birth to two distinct yet equally significant homosexual cultural traditions that continue to echo through the halls of queer history. These traditions, one centered on the passionate lyrical expressions of a woman poet, and the other on the philosophical musings of a male thinker, offer us a window into the complex ways same-sex desire was articulated, celebrated, and sometimes condemned in ancient Greek society.
Standing on the windswept cliffs of Lesbos, one can almost hear the lyrical whispers of Sappho’s poetry carried on the salt-laden breeze—fragments of desire that have survived over two and a half millennia. Meanwhile, in the once-bustling agora of Athens, the philosophical dialogues of Plato still reverberate, offering a theoretical framework for understanding male same-sex love that has influenced Western thought for centuries.
This analysis isn’t just about ancient history—it’s about the living, breathing legacy of these traditions and how they’ve been twisted, reimagined, and reclaimed through the bloody centuries. It’s about the raw power of words to shape how we understand our deepest desires and most intimate connections. It’s about the tension between poetic expression and philosophical reasoning in articulating the ineffable experiences of love and longing.
So let’s cut through the academic bullshit and get to the heart of the matter. Let’s explore the goddamn fascinating parallels and divergences between these two seminal traditions—one rooted in the fragmented verses of a woman whose very name has become synonymous with female homosexuality, and the other in the philosophical dialogues of a man whose ideas about love between men have shaped Western thought for millennia.
The Lyrical Fucking Fire: Sappho and Her Sacred Circle
On the sun-drenched isle of Lesbos, around 630-570 BCE, Sappho created a world of women that would reverberate through time like a pebble dropped in still water, its ripples still touching distant shores millennia later. The island’s rugged landscapes and azure waters formed the sensuous backdrop to her life and work—a physical paradise that mirrored the emotional and erotic paradise she created in her verses. (snip-More important history)
Palantir employees, including CEO Alex Karp, made millions in campaign donations in 2024. In April, the company won a $30 million contract to develop software to help ICE manage deportations. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In early April, hundreds of military and tech companies exhibited their products at the Border Security Expo, which brought “government leaders, law enforcement officials, and industry innovators” together. During the two-day event in Phoenix, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said he would like ICE to operate more like a business: “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.” He added that “the badge and guns” should do “the badge-and-gun stuff, everything else, let’s contract out.”
The event illustrates how companies are rushing to secure government contracts as the Trump administration ramps up its spending on ICE to reach its deportation goals. The House approved a spending bill in early May that sets aside $175 billion for immigration enforcement – about 22 times ICE’s annual budget – and includes $45 billion for detention, $14.4 billion for transportation and removal operations and $8 billion for hiring new ICE staff. The Trump administration ordered DHS to hire an additional 20,000 ICE officers.
OpenSecrets previously reported on the private prisons and air carriers that are poised to benefit from President Donald Trump’s plans to increase deportation. This final article in the series focuses on other for-profit companies benefiting from deportations.
New contracts
In April, ICE awarded software company Palantir Technologies a $29.8 millioncontract for developing ImmigrationOS, a tool to help ICE with identifying and prioritizing the deportations of individuals who are considered a risk, such as violent criminals; tracking who is self-deporting; and managing cases from the individual’s entry through detention, hearing and deportation. Palantir is expected to provide a prototype of the ImmigrationOS tool by Sept. 25. The tool is an extension of systems that Palantir has already delivered as part of its almost $128 million contract signed in 2022.
Deployed Resources, an emergency management company that has provided mobile restrooms, sinks and tents to music festivals such as Lollapalooza and emergency relief following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Sandy, has been awarded over $4 billion in government contracts to build and operate border tents since 2016, according to ProPublica. The company earned a $3 billion contract with ICE in 2022 for running tent detention facilities around the border. On April 11, ProPublica reported that ICE awarded a new contract worth up to $3.8 billion to Deployed Resources. On April 17, however, the billion-dollar contract was canceled for reasons unknown. The next day, ICE submitted a $5 million proposal for Deployed Resources to deliver unarmed guard services for 30 days at an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas. ProPublica also revealed that ICE has housed detainees at a tent facility in El Paso operated by Deployed Resources since March. The facility was previously used by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but the Trump administration used the Department of Defense to award Deployed Resources an unannounced $140 million contract to run the site for ICE, citing the declaration of an emergency at the southern border. The facility can house up to 1,000 detainees, and ICE started transferring detainees on March 10, according to ProPublica.
Axon Enterprise, a company that develops technology and weapons for public safety, law enforcement and the military, took part in the Border Expo. The company was awarded a year-long $5.1 million contract on March 10 to deliver body cams and equipment. A day later, the company was awarded a $22,376 contract to deliver tasers that have been used specifically in deportations. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division bought $2.6 million worth of Axon tasers in 2020 and 2021.
Parsons Government Services, a “technology provider,” was also at the Border Expo. The company was awarded a contract worth up to $8.9 million for COVID-19 testing supplies in February, as well as an $87,467 contract in March and a $118,758 contract in April with ICE, both to provide “mobile biometric collection devices in support of the biometric identification transnational migration alert program.” The company is already wrapping up a one-year, $4.2 million contract for the transportation and guard services of ICE detainees in Newark.
General Dynamics, a weapons company, was awarded new $101,034 and $80,050 contracts in March to purchase non-lethal ammunition for training purposes for ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs.
Sig Sauer Inc., a firearms company, was awarded more than $200,000 worth of contracts with ICE for firearms and firearm accessories in the first months of 2025: $57,163 in February, and $19,824, $35,106 and $90,854 contracts in April.
Paragon Professional Services, was awarded a $1.1 million contract on April 1 for transporting people who are detained by ICE in the New York City area and a $458,400 month-long contract to provide transportation of ICE detainees in Baltimore on April 17.
Follow the money
Palantir spent $5.8 million on lobbying the federal government in 2024. The company’s employees also made almost $5 million in campaign contributions during the 2024 elections. The largest contributions included $1 million to Make America Great Again Inc, $1 million to MAGA Inc and $344,914 to the Republican National Committee. Palantir’s CEO, Alexander Karp, contributed to Democratic as well as Republican candidates during the 2024 elections. In 2023, Karp contributed $163,800 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $154,920 to their Republican counterparts. Karp increased his contributions to the Republican Party after Trump was elected: On Dec. 12, 2024, Karp contributed $1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-supporting super PAC. In the first months of 2025, Karp contributed $360,000 to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) Grow the Majority PAC and a combined $310,100 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Palantir also spent $170,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025.
Even though the company has no lobbying history, Deployed Resources has hired more than a dozen former government insiders, according to ProPublica, including some high-ranking ICE officials. Marlen Pineiro joined Deployed recently, after working for the Department of Homeland Security in Central America developing policies with Panama, and a decade as a senior official at ICE, according to her LinkedIn profile. A month after Trump’s victory, former ICE field office director Sean Ervin announced he was joining Deployed Resources as a senior adviser for strategic initiatives.
Axon Enterprise contributed to both the Democratic and Republican parties. The CEO, Patrick Smith, donated $25,000 to the Scalise Leadership Fund of 2024, a joint fundraising committee run by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). James Norton, the vice president of the company, contributed several thousand dollars to Republicans in the past two years. Axon Enterprise spent $1.5 million on lobbying in 2024 and $510,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a $180,000 increase compared to Q1 2024. One of Axon’s lobbyists, Helen Tolar, also served as a transition advisor to Doug Collins, Trump’s secretary of veterans affairs.
Employees and PACs related to Parsons Government Services’ mother corporation, Parsons Corporation, contributed $592,053 in the 2024 elections, with $27,715 to Kamala Harris and $13,076 to Donald Trump. The company spent $950,000 on lobbying in 2024, mostly on defense issues. In the first quarter of 2025, the company ramped up its lobbying to $590,000, a $370,000 increase from the same quarter in 2024. Parsons Corporation has its own PAC, which spent $247,600 on Republican federal candidates in the 2024 elections, and $151,250 on Democratic candidates.
Sig Sauer Inc.’s PAC contributed $87,715 in the 2024 elections, mostly to Republican candidates. The company’s CEO, Ron Cohen, contributed $25,000 in 2024 to Preserve America, a super PAC supporting Donald Trump. The company spent $530,000 on lobbying in 2024 and $260,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a $180,000 increase from the first quarter in 2024. It did not lobby on specific bills in 2024.
General Dynamics contributed $3.4 million in the election, both to Republicans as well as Democrats. The company also spent $12.2 million on lobbying in 2024, mostly regarding defense issues. It spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025, a $340,000 increase from the previous year.
Paragon Professional Services LLC is a subsidiary of Bering Straits Assn., which contributed $15,305 in the 2024 elections, both on Democratic as well as Republican candidates. The company lobbied to the tune of $280,000 in 2024, mostly on the Coast Guard Authorization Act and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. It has spent $60,000 on lobbying in 2025 so far. CEO Gail Schubert spent several thousand dollars on Republican candidates in Alaska.
Why does it matter?
(snip-It Matters! MORE on the page; click through above on the article headline.)
So I read all the advice on my stepper work out post. I did listen … sort of. I wish right now I had listened to the advice better. Several people said to do 2 minutes and then 12 hours later or the next day to do 2 minutes more.
Today was the day I wanted to do legs, tomorrow will be arms with light weights, as Sunday is the day for heavy ones. So I did two minutes like people advised. I waited 30 minutes and did not feel any issues, so I did another 2 minutes. Then I sat down at my desk and sharpened the house knives. It took a while. Then I made supper in the deep frier of breaded chicken strips and french fries. By the time I got halfway through frying the food, I was struggling to bend my legs as my thighs felt like tree trunks. I did not tell Ron as I put the food away and came into my office. I had already taken my evening morphines, muscle relaxers, and 800 mg Ibuprofen. And my legs still hurt. They ache.
I am sitting at my desk and my legs feel like they can’t fit inside my pant legs. As I sit they are better bent as if I stretch them out it hurts more.
Ok I goofed, you all can say I told you so. I thought since the first two minutes did not seem to cause pain I could do another 2 minutes. I know it was suggested at least 12 hours before doing more. I can clearly see I will have to do that at least if not wait longer. I guess I want to get healthier faster and I can see there is not going to be a shortcut with this. This is going to take far longer than even I had thought it would.
So I will wait two days, then do 2 minutes on the stepper then put it away for the next couple of days. Then do two more minutes. As several said and Ten Bears reminded me he had advised me about before, this is a slow process that I can not make go at the speed I would wish it to. Not and do it correctly and keep from being in pain. I just took a 15 mg instant morphine my legs hurt so bad. Ok I fucked up … again. But I just wanted my leg muscles to fill out again so I can walk and do stuff. Hugs
The funniest thing of all time has happened, you can stop looking for funny things. Ageless wonder hack Chris Cillizza has taken to the pages of the Daily Beast to bemoan the brutal recent vandalism committed against his precious Tesla and the concomitant decline and fall of American civility it demonstrates.
Can’t we all just get along? And why we gotta make everything about politics? That’s what Cillizza wants to know. It’s not like one of the major parties is virtually indistinguishable from the Nazis at this point, oh wait, yes it is.
Let’s read this together.
Cutting right to the business, Cillizza says he came out to his car after his son’s soccer game in Virginia this week, and found that the Tesla Model 3 had been windows smashedspray-painted with swastikaskeyedeggedset on fire violently stickered. He produced a picture of the sticker, TRIGGER WARNING for it’s a sticker:
Sticker. It says ‘Musk is a Nazi.’
We are surprised the sticker hooligan didn’t include a piece of candy, just to let people know they were a peaceful sticker hooligan. Maybe a homemade Rice Krispie treat. Cillizza still decided to write a full column about the nonetheless painful incident.
You see, when Cillizza bought his Tesla Model 3 during the first Trump administration, he didn’t buy it to say he was a gay liberal climate change affirmer, which is what Tesla meant then. He bought it because it made him feel cool.
Likewise, when he drives his Tesla around now, he doesn’t drive it to say hey, I love Elon Musk and Donald Trump and being a Nazi! He drives it because it makes him feel cool.
When he first bought his Tesla, he was worried a “bro” was going to key it — you know how the “bros” are — or maybe set a charging station on fire!
And now? Libs with stickers!
To me, the vandalism speaks to the idiocy of trying to make everything political. Five or six years ago, my Tesla symbolized everything MAGA world hated. But now it symbolizes everything the left hates?
Things, how do they change! No, he literally means how do they change, because he doesn’t understand:
Doesn’t that suggest that there’s an inherent ephemeralness to what an inanimate object “means” in a political context? If the meaning of owning a certain kind of car can change 180 degrees in the space of a single administration, give or take, isn’t it possible that ascribing meaning to it in the first place was misguided?
How can Chris Cillizza’s Tesla go from being very cool to being a Nazi mating signal in just one presidential administration? Doesn’t that mean giving meanings to things is wrong?
All of these would be good questions if the answers weren’t so mindfuckingly simple, or if everything existed in a vacuum.
One more example: Anytime I post about going to eat at Chick-Fil-A, I get a few comments of this sort: How does HATE taste????
Ooh, we bet he eats Chick-Fil-A in his Tesla too. Wonder how HATE tastes inside SWASTICARS.
Probably tastes like chicken.
But does a sandwich have to be political?
Well, we don’t imagine all sandwiches have to be political, just like all cars don’t have to be political. If you’re eating Popeye’s in your RAV4, we doubt anybody is going to pull up next to you and shout “Sieg heil, queer-hater!”
At least not without some other context for the story that we don’t know.
But that’s the thing here, isn’t it? Chris Cillizza wants to be able to make whatever choices he wants to make, devoid of context, and also devoid of any kind of public criticism. Because freedom for conservative white men in America is defined as “I get to do anything I want, without consequences, and without ever being criticized.”
I didn’t eat it because I wanted to send a message to gay people. I ate it because it was delicious.
Yes, yes, we get it, it’s fine.
I know there are plenty of people out there who will argue some version of this: By eating the sandwich or buying the Tesla, you are lining the pockets of people with views that should be rejected. You are—in the parlance of the times—“normalizing” them and their views.
Yes, we know, and he just wants to eat the sandwich in the car that makes him feel cool, without even having to think about gay-bashing or the people who are murdering starving and sick babies in Africa by destroying the federal government.
He acts like he’s the first one who’s ever discovered this concept:
To this I would say two things:
I am pretty sure Elon Musk and Chick-Fil-A are going to be just fine whether or not I own a Tesla or buy a #1 meal.
If your bar is that you never interact with or buy anything from a company whose founder has taken a position with which you disagree or which has donated to a cause you don’t support, I find it very hard to believe you are going to make any purchases ever. Breaking news: Giant corporations tend to do what makes them the most money, not always what’s “right.”
Yeah, he’s probably right about the Chick-Fil-A. However, Tesla — the car company, not Elon Musk the man — is really hurting right now. Sales are down 87 percent in Quebec. Sales are down 49 percent in Europe. New headlines like that come out every week. And they’re not going away, even as Elon allegedly prepares to “leave” the government, as the excitable and impressionable New York Timesis telling us today.
The #TeslaTakedown isn’t going anywhere. That car has become synonymous with Nazis, with incels, with the self-inflicted destruction of the US government, with firing veterans, with hurting immigrants, with every vile and terrible thing Elon and his boss Stupid Hitler have done to America without its consent since January 20.
That’s gonna stick, and it’s gonna stick forever. The #TeslaTakedown is here to stay. In 50 years people are going to be violently taking magic marker to sticker and writing “Elon Musk is a Nazi” and putting it on whatever godawfully ugly shit cars the company is making then, assuming it still exists, and it might not at this rate.
As for his second thing, yes, we know that policing every purchase for the ideological associations of its manufacturer is pretty impossible. Cillizza seems to believe that, such being the case, no manufacturer should ever reap the consequences of their political behavior or that of their South African apartheid scumbag CEO.
We disagree!
Not everything has to be political. You can buy a car because it’s fun to drive without sending some deep signal about where you stand in politics.
Not a Tesla you can’t.
You can eat a sandwich because it’s delicious, not because you have an anti-gay agenda.
He’s really worried somebody is going to put a sticker on his sandwich.
The obsession with making every little bit of our lives into a political statement is, I think, making us all crazy. And driving us further from any sort of recognition of our common humanity.
That’s the end of it. Please note that in the entire column he only produced two (2) examples of this phenomenon that he describes as “making every little bit of our lives into a political statement.” It sounds more to us like he has two (2) favorite products that make his dick hard without any pharmaceutical intervention, and one of them is a sandwich and one of them is a car, and people keep saying things to him about it.
It would be different if he could have labored to come up with even a third thing. (Three things is a pattern, that’s the rule in journalism, idiots.) If he could even muster up a “And then they said I love slavery because I bought the wrong crock pot!” it might be slightly more convincing. Slightly.
But really, to support “every little bit of our lives,” we’re gonna need more than three.
But that would require Chris Cillizza to put in some effort, and we have never seen evidence that he’s willing or capable in that regard.
So, in summary and in conclusion, wank wank wank wank fuck off, Chris Cillizza can take his Tesla through a Chick-Fil-A drive-thru in hell, we don’t give a care, how’s that for common humanity?
I watched videos of this protest and the complete violence of the police going full out assault against the gay protestors who were just standing there. The Christian group in anger at what the mayor said about them, so the next day blocked access to the town hall not letting reporters, workers, or people in the community into the town hall. The Christian group did not have a permit and violated sound level ordnances but the police did not try to remove them or force them to let people through to the town hall. But the police did again violently attack the counter protestors from the neighborhoods. It seems clear the police are pro the Christian haters who want conversion therapy done on LGBTQ+ kids to wipe out anyone not straight and cis. The police chaplain is on the fly for the hate group as you can see below. The Christian hate group wants to force everyone to live as their church doctrines demand. They are extremely hateful towards the LGBTQ+ community. They demand that people respect and accommodate their views but refuse to accept the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, not accept the rights that the LGBTQ+ communities are due. I will post the rest of the post by Joe. My. God. but at the end I will post a video that streamer Vaush made on this subject also. As Vaush says the prosecutors refused to press charges on many the police arrested. Maybe because they were innocent protestors viciously attacked by bigoted police. Hugs
In the days after a chaotic confrontation between police and protesters at a conservative Christian rally on Capitol Hill, several groups have questioned why the demonstration was held at Cal Anderson Park and how the city could have better prepared.
The rally, advocating “freedom from same sex attraction” and ”the sacrality of biological gender,” was permitted in the heart of the state’s most LGBTQ+-friendly neighborhood, in a park named for the state’s first openly gay elected official.It attracted scores of protesters who scrapped with police. Twenty-three people were arrested.
Local LGBTQ+ advocates and at least one City Hall politician expressed anger the permit was granted for Cal Anderson, alleging the location was intended to rile the neighborhood’s residents.
The Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced via a social media post on Tuesday evening the FBI will investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups regarding last weekend’s chaotic Cal Anderson Park rally.
Dan Bogino posted the announcement on X at 5:15 p.m., writing, “We have asked our team to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert. Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.”
MayDay USA, which describes itself as a Christian Pro-Life organization, held the rally at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It was met by LGBTQ+ protesters in a competing rally. At some point, police were called in, and there were multiple scuffles between the group and officers.
One of the prominent supporters of Mayday USA is former Spokane Valley state representative Matt Shea, of the “On Fire Ministries,” according to the Radical Women Seattle. Mayday USA organizers have set up a tour of five cities in the country, with Saturday’s event being held in what is considered the heart of the LGBTQ+ community in Seattle on Capitol Hill.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the far-right rally was specifically held at the park in Seattle’s known LGBTQ+ neighborhood “to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values.”
In a statement, Mayor Harrell called Seattle “a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ communities, and we stand with our trans neighbors when they face bigotry and injustice.” Harrell said anarchists joined the counterprotesters, which resulted in violence and arrests. He said the event organizes shut down the event early after being asked to do so.
Matt Shea, the far-right extremist cited above, has appeared here multiple times, most recently in February 2023 when a church then-affiliated with Shea was ordered to pay Planned Parenthood nearly $1 million in legal fees and a fine related to protests that “interfered with patient care.”
He first earned national headlines in 2019 when leaked chats showed his violent fantasies about executing non-Christians and when it was learned that he had participated in militia drills to train young men for “biblical warfare.”
Shea advocates for the creation of a 51st US state based on “biblical law.” He has also said that all American men who fail to avow allegiance to Jesus should be executed.
He was expelled by the Washington state Republican caucus but refused to resign even after the feds found that he had “participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States” by helping plan the armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.
Shea did not seek reelection in 2020 and is now the pastor of Covenant Christian Church in Spokane.
I have very few photos of me as a child. I only have these few. I wish I had more. I did have a small book given to me by someone who knew my adopting adults but hurricane Ian took them from me and I did not have them saved digitally. Notice that until I was 17 and in the church boarding school was I allowed to have long hair. Hair was used as a way to set me apart from other kids, to reenforce the idea that I was less than the others, I was the one to be hurt and used. As I have mentioned while the other kids could have their hair the current style I was required to have my hair as short as possible. When I was young my adopting father cut it himself and would often leave bald spots and make it as ugly as possible. Hugs
Me at 7 months
These two pictures below I do not know how old I am, but again notice the hair. In the top picture we are at the large farm my grandparents owned. It was a place the entire family gathered at holidays. I was happy to be outside because inside the big farm house with a dozen bedrooms I was constantly being raped or made to please “my” siblings, cousins, and uncles. Even at that age of 4 or 5 I was no stranger to the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that started at age 3. The clothing was always decent when we were there, to be taken from me once we left. At the farm house I had food to eat when hungry, and grandmother was always talking to me, hugging me, and just letting me stay near her. No one yelled at me even though I was scared of some of the adult men. But when we left the good times stopped and the abuse began.
The lower one I think was taken after we have had moved to the small cow town to evade the abuse charges against the adults. I think this might have been my second grade school photo. By now the light was going from my eyes and I learned not to talk. I simply looked at everyone as possibly the next one I would have to “make happy” or perform for. It was now happening at school, by the one of the town police officers, and of course at home. My siblings would drug me and take me to parties or simply have them at the house we lived in and I would be a party favor.
In this picture below I am about 11 or 12. I am about to go to be taken somewhere to some event to be displayed. I think it might have been to church where for a while the adopting adult female and her daughters were going to hopefully to buy their way past their guilts. The pastor there was regularly abusing me, I have talked about that before. I was grateful he only wanted to play with my nude body or have me suck him, never put something in my butt as normally I would have been raped at least once before getting ready for church. By now I had no fight left in me. Notice the always long sleeves to cover the marks and bruises and the long pants to cover the welts and marks. Again notice the short hair at a time when longer flowing hair was being worn by boys my age in school. This would have been in the early 1970s. By now at this age I had accepted I was a toy to be used or displayed, moved and directed by them. I had no agency, no authority, no say in my life. My retreat was in my head, the place I lived, the dreams and stories I told myself that no one else could hear.
Below is me at 18 at the church boarding school. This is the first time in my life I was allowed to grow my hair out. The adopting adults hated it. The adopting adult female constantly bitching and insulting me over. At this point the adopting male refused to speak to me or be in any room I was in if I had to be at their home during the school year. I tried to remain at the school as much as possible.
Below is me at age 23 or early 24 when I had just gotten out of the military. I had already started to let my hair grow over my ears. This was the way I kept my hair most of my life just longer on the sides and back. Parted on the left and swept to the right. Hugs
This is me at age 23 or early 24 when I had just gotten out of the military. I had already started to let my hair grow over my ears. This was the way I kept my hair most of my life just longer on the sides and back. Parted on the left and swept to the right. Hugs
May 29, 1932 In the depths of the Great Depression, the “Bonus Expeditionary Force,” a group of 1000 World War I veterans seeking to cash in their veterans’ bonus certificates, arrived in Washington, D.C. Though issued to the veterans in 1924, the certificates were not scheduled to be paid until 1945. By mid-June, the vets had set up a massive “Hooverville,” a contemporary term for an encampment of the homeless. The St. Louis contingent of the Bonus Expeditionary Force is pictured here as it starts for Washington, D.C., in May 1932. One month later, other veteran groups made their way to the nation’s capital, swelling the Bonus Marchers to nearly 20,000 strong, most of them unemployed veterans in difficult financial straits. President Herbert Hoover ordered the Army to clear out the veterans when they resisted being evicted by Washington police. Infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton led the cavalry. This was a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the armed forces’ being used against U.S. citizens. More on the Bonus Army
May 29, 1965 In one of the first demonstrations promoting equal treatment of homosexuals, Jack Nichols, Barbara Gittings and others picketed in front of the White House. Her sign read, “Sexual preference is irrelevant to federal employment.” More about Barbara Gittings
May 29, 1986 The Christic Institute filed a lawsuit charging U.S. government complicity in an assassination bombing at La Penca, Nicaragua, and that the CIA had a role in smuggling cocaine into the U.S. to fund the Contras, an insurgent military force working to bring down the government of Nicaragua. Find out more about the Christic Institute
Readers were annoyed to discover something galling: evidence that an author used AI, right in the middle of a novel.
The novel, titled “Darkhollow Academy : Year 2,” penned by author Lena McDonald, falls under a romance subgenre called “reverse harem,” which conventionally follows a female protagonist with multiple male partners.
But as eagle-eyed fans of the genre were irritated to discover, the author left glaringly obvious evidence of not only using an AI chatbot to write portions of the book — but also of a naked attempt to copy the style of a real fellow writer.
“I’ve rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree’s style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements,” a since-deleted passage in chapter three of the novel reads, as seen in screenshots posted to the ReverseHarem subreddit earlier this month.
J. Bree is the human author of an internationally bestselling series of romance and fantasy novels.
The instance is yet another illustration of how Amazon is being flooded with self-published AI slop, a trend that has been going on ever since the tech went mainstream a few years ago. It’s a real problem for human authors, too, with AI-generated books drowning out their work in search results pages.
In one particularly egregious example, author Jane Friedman discovered back in 2023 that roughly a dozen books were being sold on Amazon with her name on them.
Understandably, the small ReverseHarem community on Reddit was outraged after McDonald was caught blatantly using AI to rip off the voice of a real author.
“I just about fell out of my chair when I read this!” wrote the user who shared the screenshots.
“I got the book to provide secondary confirmation that this is real,” another user chimed in. “Which means everyone has now read part of the book, which qualifies for a Goodreads rating, and possibly even Amazon.”
Readers tore into the book in a storm of one-star reviews.
“This was written with generative AI, as is clear by the prompt that was left in the book before uploading to Amazon,” one disgruntled reviewer wrote. “I will support authors in many, many ways, but generative AI is theft and it’s not a replacement for actual writing.”
“I would assume all of her other writing uses AI as well, as book 1 of this series released 1/24/25, book 2 on 3/13/25, and book 3 on 3/23/25,” one GoodReads reviewer wrote. “That’s faster than Steven King.”
A book reviewer account called Indie Book Spotlight put it a lot more bluntly in a Bluesky post.
“F**k you if you steal and copy authors’ works,” the user wrote. “F**k you if you use gen ai and call yourself a writer. You’re an opportunist hack using a theft machine.”
McDonald’s blunder is just the tip of the iceberg. Two other purported authors identified by Indie Book Spotlight were caught dabbling with generative AI to churn out novels.
Earlier this year, a writer who goes by KC Crowne was also seemingly caught leaving ChatGPT prompts in the text of their work.
“Thought for 13 seconds,” one passage of a book titled “Dark Obsession” on Amazon reads, as seen in screenshots posted to the RomanceBooks subreddit in January. “Certainly! Here’s an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori.”
Crowne’s Amazon page features a whopping 171 titles, each adorned with an AI-generated cover of topless, tattoo-covered men.
“International Bestselling Author and Amazon Top 8 US Bestseller,” the author’s bio reads.
A third writer, who goes by Rania Faris, was also caught using an AI chatbot.
“This is already quite strong, but it can be tightened for a sharper and more striking delivery while maintaining the intensity and sardonic edge you’re aiming for,” reads a passage one Threads user discovered in a printed copy of Faris’ book.
Oddly enough, Crowne’s novels are getting predominantly positive reviews on GoodReads, indicating they have found their niche, and readers may either not care or not be aware of the use of AI.
Users on Bluesky were sharing theories as to why.
“Oh wow, I just caught up on the KC Crowne AI thing,” award-winning Canadian author Krista Ball wrote in a post back in January. “So setting aside the AI prompt left in the book, I am amazed that this wasn’t mentioned anywhere by the early readers, the street team, etc – which leads into my paranoid theory that a percentage of readers are just skim reading.”
“Remember back in the day when writing fast was like a good reputation builder?” she added. “Now it’s sus as all hell.”
Neither McDonald nor Faris has publicly listed contact information. Crowne, at least, is taking accountability for the situation.
“Earlier this year, I made an honest mistake,” Crowne wrote in an email to Futurism. “I accidentally uploaded the wrong draft file, which included an AI prompt. That error was entirely my responsibility, and that’s why I made the tough decision to address it publicly.”
Crowne claimed that “while I occasionally use AI tools to brainstorm or get past writer’s block, every story I publish is fundamentally my own,” saying that “I only use AI-assisted tools in ways that help me improve my craft while fully complying with the terms of service of publishing platforms, to the best of my ability.”
AI or not, Crowne has somehow published 171 novels over the last seven years.
Whether the use of generative AI in self-published books on Amazon breaks any rules remains somewhat unclear. An Amazon spokesperson pointed us to the company’s content guidelines, which govern “which books can be listed for sale, regardless of how the content was created.”
The guidelines have an entire subsection dedicated to the use of AI, which stipulates that “AI-assisted content” is permitted and sellers aren’t even “required to disclose” its use. However, any “AI-generated images include cover and interior images and artwork” have to be labeled as such.
The internet at large is also facing an existential threat in the shape of an AI slop tsunami. Do we really need to extend that trend to 300-page fantasy novels to read on the subway to work?
Self-published authors who are trying to stand out in an already busy marketplace aren’t hopeful.
“They bring down the reputation of those of us who don’t touch AI to write our books,” author Catherine Arthur tweeted. “Being tarred with the ‘self-published = written by AI’ label is not good, and if they don’t stop, then that’s what may happen.”
Fraser Horn is dropping Harry Potter tours from his roster (Dan Chiu-Lezeau)
The decision to drop Harry Potter tours in Edinburgh was not an easy one to make, but was necessary, says guide and Edinburgh Street Historians founder Fraser Horn, writing exclusively for PinkNews.
I was about 11 when I first got into Harry Potter, the kid looked a lot like me at the time.
My mum gave me a copy [of one of the books] and, like so many others, I felt the series captured the mood at the time: a sense of peril, mixed with optimism that the world could turn out OK if people stood up for what was right against what was wrong.
It was an instant classic of a kids book and that’s probably why so many millennials still hold such affection [for it] to this day. But we all grew after the series finished, some of us into decent people and others into cartoon villainy.
This is why today I’m announcing that following the success of the LGBTQ+ tour replacing Harry Potter, come July, the Harry Potter tour will not be coming back.
Fraser Horn. (Dan Chiu-Lezeau)
This decision was not made lightly. Although I wanted out of Potter ever since JK Rowling’s essay in 2020, the simple fact of the matter is that the story is so deeply ingrained in the Edinburgh tourism industry that it feels almost impossible to dislodge.
The connections between Edinburgh and Harry Potter very clearly involve Rowling, since it was [here] that the series was written. The films make demand stronger, bringing in a new audience, and repeat showings keep young people interested. With the new TV show, I expect Potter tourism to increase [here] and across the UK.
If any of those tourists are queer and want a tour that’s more important, they can book the LGBTQ+ one here.
I have been a guide since 2019 but went independent in February. Street Historians was a name that came from the idea that we would be like street magicians, but of history rather than magic. We’re fun, different and the best way to see Edinburgh, in my view.
The initial plan was to do a couple of tours – Edinburgh’s Old Town and Harry Potter – on a free/pay-what-you-want basis. I planned on doing this because I knew it worked. It was around March that I got in touch with LGBT Health and Wellbeing, a Scottish charity which focuses on supporting the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ adults. I wanted to discuss donating money from my Harry Potter profits to them but I also [said] I had offered an LGBTQ+ tour privately in the past.
They were particularly interested in the LGBTQ+ tour so I decided to run that every Friday at 6pm. It involves medical innovators, spies and [the] Aids [crisis], as well as how activists helped reshape society for the LGBTQ+ community. It is essential stuff.
I was motivated to drop Potter for Pride month because of the recent Supreme Court decision which will make our trans siblings unsafe. Rowling has confirmed she donated money to the organisation that advocated for the court decision and celebrated with a cigar picture on a boat, which made me want to drop Potter even more.
The Harry Potter tour will be replaced with a queer-related one. (Dan Chiu-Lezeau)
The response – both to the original LGBTQ tour and to replacing Potter with it – has been overwhelming.
People who have come on the LGBTQ+ tour love having an event which is a bit different from the standard fare, both in terms of walking tours and queer events. Guests have been making friends and these are the kind of life-long connections from which community is made. The decision to drop Potter for LGBTQ+ history has been a success and most have been positive about it.
However, some thought I was doing it for the wrong reason: rainbow capitalism, or purely to make money for Pride, before switching back to the Potter tours. It’s fair that the community might expect this sort of thing because as we’ve seen, companies change very quickly. A great example of this would be Barclays Bank, which has a very proud LGBTQ+ section. Then I read how they are banning trans people from using the toilets of their gender, based on the court ruling.
To reassure people, Potter will not be coming back to the Street Historians roster. We have been looking for more interesting stories to tell, for example on forgotten women.
Even with significant economic considerations, it seems necessary for me to drop Potter. The series may be a draw for other people but it is proving harder as time goes by to conjure up enthusiasm. Some may be upset, but I guess that’s the lesson I took from the sort of books I read growing up. We have to take a stand eventually or nothing will ever change.
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful. (snip)
Scottie's Playtime 