“There was nothing like a Saturday – unless it was the Saturday leading up to the last week of school and into summer vacation. That of course was all the Saturdays of your life rolled into one big shiny ball.”
― Nora Roberts, Rising Tides

Hi kittens, we’ve made it to another weekend and instead of a rant, how about I just let you get straight to the goodness? There’s a lot of news and fun links this week, but as always, please share your favorite stories, memes, and links from the week in the comments!

Let’s start off with something cute and purely delightful, shall we?

An ode to the fake fur coat.

So much for seeing the courts…in court. Travel Ban 2.0 was rolled out this week with, it must be said, what looks like some actual thought put into the process and application this time. It’s still garbage. If the ostensible goal is to protect Americans from “radical Islamic terrorists,” the administration has still failed utterly to prove that citizens and refugees from these countries posed a heightened significant entry in the first place. The terrorists or their sympathizers who have carried out violent actions in recent years seem to be made in America, as little as we apparently like to acknowledge that fact. Iraq, the birthplace of ISIS is off the restricted list seeing as they are, ya know, our ally. Meanwhile refugees are going to have to go through a more stringent process than ever before, even though those most needing assistance are the least likely to be able to pass background checks seeing as how (to take Syria as an example) their entire nation state and all its attendant bureaucracies, paperwork, legal histories, and documented evidence have been bombed to oblivion. Meanwhile, I believe there is plenty of evidence of animus towards muslims in statements from the president and his supporters to warrant challenges.

No amount of deleting can un-tweet your tweets, Mr. Stone.

This sounds like a fascinating project and I wish I could see it.

My own representative, Congressman Chaffetz, continues to be the living embodiment of the word “craven,” and his latest gaffe was a right doozy. Let’s set aside this annoying and frankly damaging trope that (presumably) poor people are just irresponsible with money/services and therefore it’s a bad idea to provide them…his math is a joke. Does he live in a world where poor people, to say nothing of working and middle class citizens, buy phones every month? Nay, more than that! According to the National Conference of State Legislatures last year, the annual premium costs for an average family were $18,000. Meaning that you’d have to buy a new iPhone once a month for three years in a row for an equivalence. Meanwhile, I’d like everybody who has ever had a single prescription or procedure cost more than $500 to put their hands up.

Samurai Jack is coming back!

Should the president’s statements/accusations/word vomit that the former president tapped his phones be taken at face value? According to the Press Secretary, and I quote, “Yes it should. Of course it should. No.”

This whole story is such a load of sexist garbage. And it’s disheartening.

Also, give this reporter a gold star for questioning why the president is calling for an investigation…if he already is in possession of conclusive evidence that this tapping happened? As I see it, either President Trump lobbed in a completely fabricated conspiracy theory (which in itself should be a scandal as it questions not just where he’s getting his information, but whether he can tell fact from fiction), or he revealed that he/his organization have been the subject of investigations (which is likely also going to be a scandal depending on what he/they were being investigated for). Either way, self inflicted wound.

Got my dose of beauty therapy from sighing lustfully over these statement earrings.

A great new piece of art landed on Wall Street just in time for IWD.

Album of the week: Everything is Forgotten, by Methyl Ethel