Quimby’s is a famous zine store in Chicago. Never been to Chicago, but Quimby’s was the first store to carry Pathetic Life, so I love ’em, or at least I want to.
From Pathetic Life #22 Tuesday, March 5, 1996
They reached out to me last summer, wanting to sell Pathetic Life, which sounded cool to me. They explained their invoice system and forms, used by all the zinesters whose work Quimby’s sells, so I play by their invoicing rules.
They only sent two of their invoice blanks, though, and my zine comes out monthly, so with the second shipment I enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelope and asked for more of their invoices.
There was no reply, so my third mailing to Quimby’s included my own half-assed invoice form, another SASE, and another note asking nicely for more invoices. Also I asked real friendly-like whether anyone was buying the zine off the shelves. Still, no reply.
Quimby’s is a big store (I’ve seen pictures) and dealing with a thousand of do-it-yourself publishers must be a lot of work. Balls get dropped through cracks thin and wide, things get forgotten, and I try not to be too impatient but… they owe me $165, money which I’ll love to spend on cat food though I don’t have a cat. That’s how poor I am.
Almost a year, and I haven’t been paid, and my questions haven’t been answered.
Today, Quimby’s Spring catalog came in the mail, and Pathetic Life is listed — so whatdoyaknow, it is for sale there. Early issues are marked as ‘sold out’ in the catalog, so that answers my question on whether anyone’s buying it. But I was slowly simmered by this blurb toward the back of the book:
“Communication — Because we deal with so many small publishers individually, we ask that you keep in touch. Haven’t heard from us in a while? Our phone number is (312) 342-0910.”
Wait a minute. I understand forms and letters, and postal problems, and a busy office, lousy cash flow, and lost paperwork. I’ve worked in offices, and understand all the things that can go wrong. If they’re too busy to bother with me, I won’t lie awake nights, and if they never pay me I’ll chalk it up to my own stupidity for trusting people I’ve never met at a store I’ve never seen.
I don’t think they’re ignoring me on purpose, but yeah, “Haven’t heard from you in a while.” So I’m supposed to call? Long distance? During business hours? That’s expensive. I still have wet dreams about Sarah-Katherine, but I’ve never called her long distance, even on the weekends when rates go down — that’s how cheap I am.
And I’ll be damned if I’ll make a long distance call to a zine shop that’s ignored me for almost a year. So if you live in Chicago, please subscribe. The zine no longer has a sales outlet there.
This is an entry retyped from an on-paper zine I wrote many years ago, called Pathetic Life. The opinions stated were my opinions then, but might not be my opinions now. Also, I said and did some disgusting things, so parental guidance is advised.
Addendum, here and now: Reading and re-typing this entry surprised me. I’d forgotten all about feeling shafted and ignored by Quimby’s, but I am a world-class grudge-holder — if they’d never paid me I’d never forget it, so they must’ve paid me eventually.
The store is still there, and as recently as a few months ago I mail-ordered some zines from them. Sure wouldn’t do that if I was angry at them, so I am certain as cyanide that they paid every dime they owed.
Excerpt: A man whose teenage son shot dead four people at a U.S. high school was found guilty of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday in a rare case of a parent charged over a shooting carried out by their child.
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted by a jury in Georgia of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and other offenses in connection with the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School by his troubled son Colt.
Excerpt: The Star Tribune reviewed the criminal histories of nearly every immigrant detained in Minnesota who has been showcased on the DHS website and those identified in news releases. In several instances, the federal government listed inaccurate criminal histories, duplicated entries and people who have already been freed.
Excerpt: A Haitian asylum seeker held for four months at Florence Correctional Center died Monday at a Scottsdale hospital due to complications from an infected tooth, a local official in Chandler said Tuesday.
Emmanuel Damas, 56, died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after struggling to receive timely medical care for a worsening toothache, Chandler City Councilwoman Christine Ellis told the Arizona Daily Star Tuesday afternoon.
Ellis, a registered nurse who is Haitian-American, said she is outraged and called for an investigation into Damas’ death, which she said came weeks after the man first complained of tooth pain to Florence staff.
“Nobody should die from a toothache,” Ellis said. “Something has to be done.”
ICE had not acknowledged Damas’ death as of Wednesday morning.
Excerpt: The quarantine of the facility follows multiple confirmed cases of measles and at least two cases of tuberculosis at the sprawling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in El Paso.
It’s a chance to bring suffering and perhaps death to the weakest and most vulnerable, so there was never a doubt how the Republican Supreme Court would rule.
Excerpt: The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party started a group chat primarily for conservative students last fall — and within three weeks it was filled with racist slurs, someone wrote dozens of ways of violently killing Black people and the chat was renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.”
Excerpt: The autopen investigation was led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which is run by a longtime Trump ally, Jeanine Pirro. The inquiry was quietly shelved in recent months, around the time that prosecutors under Ms. Pirro sought and failed to secure an indictment in a different case: one against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged Mr. Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse to follow illegal orders.
Excerpt: On Monday, the department announced in a court filing that it was dropping its appeal against a ruling by a district court judge that blocked Trump’s retaliatory executive actions against four companies that refused to make a deal with him.
Trump’s “capitulation” was celebrated by at least two of the the companies that welcomed the DoJ’s voluntary withdrawal from the legal proceedings.
On Tuesday, however, the government filed a new, single-paragraph request to the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, announcing it had changed its mind, and wished “to pursue this appeal”.
Excerpt: “The two most important requirements are you MUST be aligned politically with President Trump and his administration and you must be willing to work hard. Don’t be scared off by the transcript requirement. GPA is not a strong factor. If you meet those two requirements, you have a shot.”
Excerpt: “There might be some information that hasn’t been released yet that the chief medical examiner was given that might cast a different light on it. But if this were a suicide, it’s an extremely unusual suicide,” Dr Baden said.
“It’s more consistent with homicidal strangulation rather than suicidal hanging.”
It is worth noting how experienced Dr Baden is. He was a New York City medical examiner for 25 years, including a stint as its chief. He was the lead examiner for the New York state police. He was chairperson of the forensic pathology panel that re-investigated the deaths of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King. And in the 1980s, he was among the scientists sought by the Russian government to examine the remains of the Romanov family and the last Emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicolas II. …
“When looking at the body … I looked at a little odd situation there, because the ligature furrow around the neck was horizontal rather than upwards because [in] suicides, the ligature will slide upward and stop by the undersurface of the jawbone, the mandible,” he said.
“There were three fractures: two of the thyroid cartilage, which is the Adam’s apple, and one of the hyoid bone … and that is extremely unusual in suicide. That’s much more common a crushing injury in homicidal strangulation.”
Dr Baden explained that the series of three fractures were reminiscent of the results of assassinations you might see in movies “like the Godfather pictures, when somebody gets into the passenger seat in the car and the other guy gets behind and a ligature is put around the neck and squeezed”.
“So that’s a crushing injury and not … usually seen in suicidal hangings,” he said.
That’s twice Governor Jared Polis has publicly announced he’s considering kissing Donald Trump’s fleshy pink ass. Does he lack even the courage to actually decide he’s useless? Will he spend the rest of his term hemming and hawing like Hamlet over his own turdiness?
Excerpt: Public filings on her own personal political giving reveal years of support for far-right Republicans. The list of those who have received her cash include MAGA candidates, the Republican head of the evangelical Zionist group Christians United for Israel, anti-abortion candidates, and even far-right pundit Laura Loomer, according to disclosures reviewed by The Intercept.
Full text: The U.S. Interior Department said a database revealing how President Donald Trump’s administration planned to revise information on key phases of American history at national park sites was deliberative and the employees who released it “will be held accountable.”
An internal government database first reported by the Washington Post and posted on two public websites on Monday revealed the scope of the Trump administration’s effort to revise or remove information on African-American history, LGBT rights, climate change and other topics at hundreds of national park sites.
“The narrative being advanced is false and these draft, deliberative internal documents are not a representation of final action taken by the department,” an Interior Department spokesperson said. The National Park Service is part of the Interior Department.
Trump has targeted cultural and historical institutions – from museums to monuments to national parks – to remove what he calls “anti-American” ideology.
His declarations and executive orders have led to the dismantling of exhibits on slavery, the restoration of Confederate statues and other moves that civil rights advocates say could reverse decades of progress.
The Interior Department spokesperson alleged the internal working documents were edited in a misrepresenting way before being released. The spokesperson also labeled the release as inappropriate and illegal, without specifying the law it allegedly violated.
“Employees who altered internal records and leaked in an effort to hurt the Trump administration will be held accountable,” the spokesperson added.
Me again: They’re worried about what might “hurt the Trump administration,” which is the opposite of what might hurt the United States.
Back to the coverage: The Trump administration has sought to stifle internal dissent within government agencies and taken action against employees who have criticized its policies.
Last year, some employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were put on leave after they signed an open letter against the agency’s leadership, while some Environmental Protection Agency employees were fired after they signed a letter critical of the government’s actions.
Excerpt: The cancellation comes as the United States is in the midst of a particularly severe flu season. So far, 86 children and 19,000 adults have died this season, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m quite shocked,” Norman Baylor, a former director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccine Research and Review, said in an email. “As you know, the VRBPAC is critical for making the decision on strain selection for the next influenza vaccine season.”
The FDA typically convenes the meeting every spring to get recommendations on which strains should be included in the upcoming flu vaccine.
The meetings are important because the flu virus changes year to year, and the vaccine must be updated to provide the best protection. Deciding on the strains in the spring gives vaccine manufacturers enough time to produce the shots to be ready for the fall.
If you’re old, you’ll remember the US government using paraquat to poison marijuana-smokers in the 1980s, and I remember reading in the 1990s about the dangers and deaths caused by paraquat. It’s still legal in the USA, though, because it’s profitable.
I bought a loaf of bread at the West Seattle Target in 2022. Nothing was wrong with the bread, except where I bought it, and I won’t be a customer again.
Excerpt: “It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone – the United States or Israel or anyone – they were going to respond, and respond against the United States,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Excerpt: Pahlavi, the eldest son of Iran’s last shah, has been living in exile following his father’s ouster in 1979 and is a longtime advocate for regime change in the country.
The exiled crown prince said he expects to serve as interim leader until the country is ready to hold democratic elections, estimating “a couple years, at the most.”
Full text: Without any clear message coming from the White House with regard to the purpose of the Iran war, U.S. military commanders have turned to Jesus, apparently telling American troops that the war is “biblically sanctioned.”
The U.S. joined Israel in striking Iran early Saturday morning. By Monday evening, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, was “inundated” with complaints, receiving more than 110 grievances from U.S. military personnel stationed at dozens of sites across the Middle East, reported independent journalist Jonathan Larsen.
One such note included an anecdote from a noncommissioned officer, who reported that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”
The NCO’s complaint was lodged on behalf of 15 troops, including 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew, according to Larsen. The officer stated that such remarks “destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the Constitution.”
“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now,” the NCO wrote.
“He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,’” the NCO continued. “He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy.”
It wouldn’t be a stretch to blame some of the blatant constitutional violations on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has repeatedly evoked God and Christian nationalism in his time fronting the Pentagon.
Hegseth has parroted the views of Douglas Wilson, a conservative theologian who advocated for Christian dominance over government and society. He has followed through in practice, instating regular prayer services at America’s military headquarters. He also entered office with several Christian symbols already emblazoned on his skin—a Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus vult”—in what Hegseth has described as emblems of the “modern-day American Christian crusade.”
U.S. service members are afforded the religious liberty protections in the First Amendment. They also have a legal right to seek religious accommodations—and the MRFF told Larsen that it has been overwhelmed with complaints about commanders who are apparently tapping into the same sort of Christian nationalism espoused by the Pentagon chief.
“These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new ‘biblically-sanctioned’ war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’ as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation,” MRFF president and founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House, told Larsen.
“Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”
Excerpt: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the United States would cut off all trade with Spain after the European country refused to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings” with Spain.
“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he added.
Excerpt: The United States and Ecuador have launched joint military operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in the South American country, the Pentagon said on Tuesday night, in what appeared to be a major expansion of the U.S. military’s unilateral strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific that the Trump administration has accused of carrying drugs.
Ugh. Talarico’s opponent, Jasmine Crockett, has her problems, but she’s sometimes sounded genuine, and her name is on my very short list of Democrats I don’t want to punch in the teeth. This guy Talarico is a seminarian, and on every issue, everything I’ve seen or read him saying always segues to his endlessly profound and deeply personal faith in Jeebers Crispies. If I lived in Texas, I would’ve voted for Ms Crockett, while packing to leave for somewhere sane.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo & John the Basketemeritus, Jeff Meyer, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.
If a paywall prevents access to any coverage linked here, let me know. I’ll reply with the article’s complete text.
News always and only from reliable sources, and I decide what’s reliable — no right-wing bullshit, no Substack because fuck Nazis, and no RawStory, Newsweek, or other clickbait sites. Written news is preferred; video links will be rare, and damned near never to videos where a reporter or podcaster simply reads a script or does improv — that’s show biz, not news.
Excerpt: The Star Tribune reviewed the criminal histories of nearly every immigrant detained in Minnesota who has been showcased on the DHS website and those identified in news releases. In several instances, the federal government listed inaccurate criminal histories, duplicated entries and people who have already been freed.
99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it’s not on this page.
When cops are caught breaking the law, they’re investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers’ names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.
When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with ‘law enforcement experience’ and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It’s called “Wandering Cops.”
When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: “testilying.” Yet it’s almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.
Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don’t, they aren’t cops for long.
The legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past ‘qualified immunity’ is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.
All this is a path to a police state.
In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.
Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.
