good morning, it's 8 may 2017

Trump and Corruption starts with "Flynn was warned by Trump transition officials about contacts with Russian ambassador." Apparently it was bad enough even some of their team found it dodgy. Or at least, revealing. Meanwhile, "In a Beijing ballroom, Kushner family pushes $500,000 ‘investor visa’ to wealthy Chinese" - perfectly legal visas, but it you want to make it any clearer that this is a looting operation, I'm not sure how you would. "E.P.A. Dismisses Members of Major Scientific Review Board" - to replace them with reps of the industries the EPA regulates. Because regulatory capture isn't complete until you can really rub peoples' noses in it.

In neofascism and similar tactics, we have "The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked," which is more into Palintir and Cambridge Analytics and so on. Important background data. "White House argues Dems shouldn’t hurt Trump’s feelings" sounds like something out of a tinhorn dictatorship, but there it is and there you have it. "The American Health Care Act's Prosperity Gospel" outlines the specifically fundamentalist Christian version of all this, and ties back in to my essay on the social takeover of the GOP by the fundamentalist mindset. "FDA is now all Fox News, all the time" - you know this by now, there have been several stories, but the vision of propaganda blasting from every point is pretty vivid.

Meanwhile, "Lawsuit depicts Fox News as not just sexist. Not just misogynistic. Barbaric." which is pretty strong language even now, and "Why Opposing Trump Isn't Like the GOP Obstructing Obama" talks about media gaslighting of antifascist opposition.

Racism and the war on women - which ties into the previous section - includes "Texas police chiefs slam sanctuary city bill," as in yes, Texas police chiefs think it goes too far. Think about that. "ICE 'Victim-Blames' Immigrants With Sexual Assault Policies" - but it's more obvious in Spanish than in English, where I guess they thought they could get away with more. "GOP rep says no need for Planned Parenthood, women can simply get birth control at the grocery store." What aisle has pap smears and cervical cancer screenings? And, of course, "Republicans defend having no women in health care group," because their complete and stunning disgust with anything having to do with women's health hasn't been made clear enough already.

Finally, we close with, "Did Macron Outsmart Campaign Hackers?" - spoiler alert: probably; well done, Team Macron - and "What the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive wants the world to know."

Good luck out there.

( It's May 8th, 2017; this is the news )

is this coherent to people?

I finally wrote up the design document for Coexistence Alpha. (Link goes directly to an .rtf.) Does this read coherently to people?

much later than anything else we've seen so far

All dialogue is in translation from the French.

«Good evening, Gérard. I've missed you.»

The woman all in black laid her lilies against the gravestone, as she did one day a year, every year. But this was not the customary day, or month, or for that matter, even the daytime at all.

«I know; I'm early. But I do not know what to do.»

She took out a small bottle of wine - a fillette of Chinon red, so dark, almost purple - and two particularly delicate glasses. One, she set on the gravestone. The other, she kept.

«I've got into bad situations before, Gérard. But this one... I'm in real trouble now.»

She poured wine for the two of them, swirling the glasses gently. A little for herself, more for Gérard, and then, on second thought, more for herself after all.

«I love her, Gérard. I thought I had turned everything down so low and far from myself that I would not see it again after you, my dearest. But...»

The woman closed her eyes, sipped her wine, and bit her lower lip, before continuing.

«I love her. As I loved you.»

She opened her eyes.

«To be honest with myself, I was almost ready for that. But then, when I put her in your place, in my memory...»

She drank the rest of her glass of wine, all of it, at once, like someone already a little too drunk, red invisible on her blue lips. To anyone looking on, she would seem a exquisitely graceful lout; to herself, she felt she could barely hold onto the glass's stem at all.

«...I do not think I could pull the trigger this time, Gérard.»

She threw her glass away, violently, the fragile crystal smashing into a thousand pieces against nearby stones. Then, she reached out, poured the contents of Gérard's glass onto his grave, and carefully put his glass back down.

«I'm so, so sorry. I did not think it was possible... but...»

A heavy breath.

«I think I love her more than I loved you.»

Water, from her eyes, for the first time in many years.

«I did not imagine that was possible. And yet I think... I think, with her... I could not do it, no matter the cost.»

She drained the dregs of the wine directly from the bottle, and, rather than destroying it, knelt down and placed it gently on her husband's grave, the water in her eyes pooling, falling, tears.

«Help me figure this out, Gérard. I don't know what to do, and I'm so afraid, afraid that this time...»

«...I would let the world burn.»