Published April 10, 2025
There’s a lot going on. As usual lately, I don’t have the energy to do much of the telling. So as usual lately, I’ll let others deliver much of the mail today.
First, let me say that I’ve continued to update Monday’s story. You might want to see what’s new.
Those updates segue into today’s updates.
You may recall that a week ago the Fox News stock ticker vanished. Interesting timing.
Yesterday, it came back.
stock ticker is back on fox news, roflmao
— Oliver Willis (@owillis.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 11:16 AM
What happened in the interim? Let’s have a look.
Your wallet is being cleaned out by expert pickpockets. This is criminal. Literally criminal. I call for an IMMEDIATE investigation into who knew what, when, and what they did with the info. You can bet the Admin and many here in DC are considerably richer tonight than they were this morning.
— Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (@houlahan.house.gov) April 9, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Yeah, I think people know what happened.
Any traders with inside information that Trump was going to walk back his tariffs — some of them, presumably, Trump family members and cronies — just made a fortune.
It all feels like chaos until you look more closely at who is winning.
— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) April 9, 2025 at 3:23 PM
People who get their information solely from Fox News might not know. Luckily, a series of indicators can be handy for this.
How to understand the stock market if you only watch Fox News
— The Daily Show (@thedailyshow.com) April 9, 2025 at 11:12 AM
This is a 12 alarm fire for the economy. If being friends with the president and giving him kickbacks makes you exempt from large import taxes Vs your competitors, it will stratify the whole economy and push corruption and loyalty and political controls deep into the private sector
— Pwnallthethings (@pwnallthethings.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 12:51 AM
This is quite literally what killed the Soviet economy
— Pwnallthethings (@pwnallthethings.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 12:52 AM
We are being governed by chaos agents working against us.
Rep. Steven Horsford to Greer: “So the trade representative hasn’t spoken to the POTUS about a global reordering of trade, but yet he announced it on a tweet? WTF! Who is in charge? It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you. There is no strategy … is this market manipulation?”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
That pain in the neck you feel is whiplash.
So about my new religion
I don’t know if it’s really that, but I saw something a couple of days ago that got my attention. It’s there in the featured image above, but it bears repeating.
As best I can tell, it dates to the day after the election, when I was on the floor and Margaret Killjoy was writing those words for her readers.
Deescalate all conflict that isn’t with the enemy.
Deescalate all conflict that isn’t with the enemy.
Deescalate all conflict that isn’t with the enemy.
I don’t care whether you hyphenate that first word or not. It doesn’t fucking matter.
This thing can get tricky when it comes to knowing who your enemy is. But I think that’s as clear as it’s ever been in my lifetime. Anyway, that’s up to others to decide for themselves. I’ve got a pretty good handle on it these days. The people who want to eradicate trans people, and those who support that goal, are at the top of the list.
You do you. I’ll be me.
Butterfly Wednesday
I had another round of treatment to address my ongoing medical mystery. My outfit leaned hard into butterflies.
Those Vans are new. Wednesday was their public debut. They were a big hit.
As was this T-shirt.
I almost forgot about my lilac butterfly sunglasses. Very popular out and about. Handy, too, for someone whose limbs shake so much now that putting on eye makeup or doing her brows is out of the question.
Speaking of T-shirts
Mom had BOOP (Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia) in the months before she died of complications of lymphoma. She soon had a collection of Betty Boop items as a way to wink at the scariness of it all.
I realized a couple of weeks ago that I could have this T-shirt for shoulder injections and give nasty illnesses the cold shoulder (and think of her).
Betty Boop arrived late Wednesday, too late for my latest injection, but she’s in my closet for next time. And the next.
Wednesday was rougher than you’d think looking at these photos. I stopped at a grocery store to see if I could do it. I watched the steady flow of people going inside and really didn’t think I can do it. This country and its people scare me now IRL.
I kept my friends on Bluesky Social informed.
Didn’t go in. Vertigo showed up at the worst time. And now I’m freaked and frozen. Stay with me awhile?
And later:
Actually stuck here and kinda terrified right now. Going to try going places after my clinic was a bad idea. I do t k ow if I can figure oit how to get home. They’re tearing up the streets. Suns in my eyes. Ears popping. Vertigo worse. If I die please note I look good today.
Didn’t notice the typos. Not correcting them.
I did get home, but I had to ask for directions because of closed roads downtown.
I couldn’t go left because it was a one-way street. Couldn’t go straight because the road was closed. A right turn would put me headed to Oregon or to the other end of town. I went inside my neighborhood convenience store, where I learned of a dipsy doodle that may or may not have been legal but got me home.
So many stories from that store. Longtime followers have heard them all. Like when I went in and my phone just started playing this song and we were all like everyone in Shawshank for 4 minutes, quiet and lifted out of our dreary lives.
An update on my leave
My latest note from my clinic tells my employer(s) that the earliest I could return to work is July 1. That’s well beyond the 180 days covered by short-term disability. A claim for long-term disability is in the works.
I can’t work. Can’t function. Words won’t come. Typos will. These sentences take longer to build than you might think.
Hand-eye coordination and language skills are shot. Physically, mentally, emotionally, I’m still a wreck. I’m a trans woman in America in 2025. If you don’t think that’s so hard, try it. Look at how much they hate us. That’s how much they want us gone.
1. Trump has officially defunded school lunches in Maine for kids and disabled adults because of transgender people.
Trump is holding the funds hostage and will allow kids to go hungry unless Maine discriminates.
The latest from S. Baum.
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— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) April 9, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Before you go, please look at this
I got this message a few days ago and wanted to show it to you (with permission).
Keep being you. Someone is watching you, and you are probably helping them. If you aren’t, there’s still time to be a good example.
Sending love.
♥
Thank you
If you appreciate what you find here and feel generous, you can check out the Tip Jar. Thank you for reading. Here’s a butterfly for you.
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Nicole
I may not always have the time/spoons to comment, but I am always reading. Thank you for continuing to hold up the light for us, even if your hands are shaking. It helps.