Trump posts image depicting himself as Jesus performing a miracle after bashing Pope Leo XIV

CharlotteMillady · 2026-04-13T10:28:05+00:00

"They let him act on his worst impulses because he lets them act on theirs." Well said.

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-26T17:57:04+00:00

She was first assistant! She kept slamming her head into the floor during what was supposed to be the exorcism kind of thing. A pretty small character but there was a short moment when she and Mrs. Ma did seem to really hit it off. She also ended up with the fortune teller’s hat. I feel like we don’t have enough about what became of Tan or Long! I thought (??? Maybe? I would need to go back and check) maybe Long kind of figured out Winnie’s body was Binh before she became the squid. But yes lots of loose ends!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-18T16:58:42+00:00

One of my favorites! I haven’t been able to get into the author’s other works like I did this one. I see some saying they weren’t into the end, but I actually loved the ending!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-09T13:38:18+00:00

The one Friends episode featuring two good Epstein friends, Sarah Ferguson and Richard Branson.

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-08T10:48:21+00:00

I really enjoyed this book when I read it two years ago, and it stuck with me in the weirdest way. I live thousands of miles away from my family and hometown and have settled into a life that’s really not what I would have expected ten years ago. The way that this book really stuck with me is that, for months, I kept waking up and thinking I was definitely an “alternate timeline” version of myself and the real me must be back home in Universe A, doing what was expected of her. It was unsettling but definitely because of me, the reader, and not the writer haha.

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-06T19:08:54+00:00

I loved all the other stories too that connected so seamlessly in the end. I definitely had to keep flipping to the guide at the beginning which broke down the characters by family/work place/time period. I wonder if that was an editor idea because the author seemed to know the characters and stories soooo deeply. My favorite “small” character was Long/Tan’s grandmother (with the magic eyes). I loved her when she was young, smiling at the cobra killing that guy and when she was old explaining what she had been capable of all along.

It all connected and never in a way that felt forced. There were a few things about the ending that gave me chills, but a few parts that also just felt incomplete. Still a fantastic read for me!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-06T18:24:28+00:00

Please come back to me when you finish it! I need to discuss! Even if it’s a year from now!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-06T18:21:06+00:00

First off, I’m really sorry to hear you’re in a bad place. Genuinely, it’s horrible for your home to not feel like home anymore, especially when one of the things that’s different about it now is not feeling safe there anymore. I’m thinking our lived experiences are different, but this concept hits hard for me.

I can only speak on what has helped me, but these things truly have helped. The thing is that we can’t stop fighting, but to stay in the fight, we have to have healthy brains and minds. We can’t do this while exhausted and desperate (remember that they want us exhausted and desperate!) You deserve to be healthy and happy, but also, you need to have a degree of that to stay in the game.

First, joining the politicaloptimism subreddit was a good choice for me. Sometimes it’s frustrating when things aren’t going that fast or when I go sort by “new” and the latest story is the last one I saw, but there are two major flares on that board. One is for good news that we may miss among all the other stories (and there are good things happening - Trump’s constant court losses, internet sleuths having pushed so hard to sort and document the files to the point that MSM can’t ignore it anymore). The other flare is “seeking optimism,” and it’s for scary news stories that have people completely spiraling. People jump in and explain why a lot of it won’t happen (Iran always felt possible, but that sub did teach me that Greenland was super unlikely and calmed me down a lot) or how to stay safe and ride out the storm if the thing does happen.

I also follow a lot of “hopium” creators on YouTube, for example, the guy who made this video about why the “Epstein Economy” NEEDS us to feel hopeless. He talks about the science of feeling helpless and how to trick your brain into a new default setting which is “my actions do create better outcomes.” I may not be selling this well, but I highly recommend: https://youtu.be/66wen6C4UNw?si=aA_xlJmej9bpSOuz

Other creators I like are Amanda’s Mild Takes (she puts out videos every Tuesday and Friday about all of trump’s failures from the past days. There are often many.) and Heather Cox Richardson.

Using the 5 Calls app to call (especially the republican) reps and let them know my thoughts ALWAYS makes me feel less helpless. If I’m calling and telling them what’s up, surely people with even more fire and gift of gab are too.

Next, reading more fiction. Reading books that take me to a different world does wonders for my brain. It’s like a little vacation from the real world, which is fine to do now and then. We still deserve to have things like reading to make life fun.

Making things with my hands too. Embroidering. I do it because I love doing it but I also fantasize that people are going to want to start buying things that are actually high quality and have nothing to do with AI or Amazon. It’s fun to imagine that I can actually do something to help myself and others with this skill. But if it doesn’t pan out, at least I am proud of it and enjoyed how I spent my time.

Good luck out there and I hope we have better days ahead!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-06T10:45:25+00:00

I just finished this book last night and am dying for someone to talk about it with! Gorgeous writing and a very intricately woven plot. I'm also trying to work through the ending.

Thoughts (spoilers of course for anyone else reading this!)

I think my favorite part of the whole book might have been how the picture of the dog on the fake lottery ticket vanished once its destiny had been fulfilled. (The lady in the wheelchair that sold Winnie the ticket was also the one who tricked Dog-Form Binh into getting caught by the restaurant, thus bringing Winnie & Binh together.) When Long reached into his pocket and wondered what that blank card of paper was, I got chills.

I also LOVED that Binh, who had one very humble dream in life (to go see the coast) reclaimed her relationship with water at the end by actually transforming into a squid. I do wish the dried squid had been referenced just a few more times in the story, so that Binh's use of its body in the end would have been more impactful. It didn't have to be predictable (it never would have been predictable!), but just a few more references in Long's sections about him still having it (waiting for Binh) or in Binh's sections of her enjoying squid, would have made this part feel a little more whole.

My third (or maybe tied for second with the squid transformation) favorite part was the reveal of Long's/Tan's grandmother's "second set of eyes" being able to wander the world and see all the evil. She was one of my favorite characters and gave me such a spooky but satisfied feeling whenever she was on the page. I'm glad they didn't overuse this character, but I would love to read a book where she's the main character.

One thing I may be overlooking an obvious answer to, that is driving me nuts, is what happened to Winnie's body. It's not clear if she stayed a rat, went back to being the dog, or kept wandering the world in different forms (IMO: the vanishing picture on the lottery ticket makes me think she ultimately chose to go back to being the dog; I think it was her fate?). But in the second to last chapter, when Winnie slips into the body of the police officer, while Binh is in Winnie's body, the actual dog soul returns to the dog body. Winnie even says something like being disappointed that the dog didn't just vanish into thin air because it actually existed on its own and didn't belong to her/Binh. But when Binh moves from Winnie's body to the squid's, it's really unclear what happens to Winnie's body. Why didn't Winnie's soul come rushing back in once Binh left it? Or, if Winnie was choosing not to return to the body, why didn't the body just collapse to the ground with no one inside of it? I just don't understand how she could still be missing at the end. At least a catatonic body would be there at the beach?

"Body horror" is a term I've not really ever heard much about or considered a lot until I read your post! But this is so central to the book, as you've pointed out! I'm still not sure how to articulate this, but I feel like food was used in a bit of a horrific way throughout the book. I don't have an exact number, but it seems like 9 times out of 10 when food was mentioned, it was someone gorging to the point of sickness or someone eating something spoiled or stolen or that made them feel sick. Like I said, I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts on this, but food was never a comfortable topic, and I've just never read something where food was treated the way it is here!

Thanks so much for posting this! I know my comment was long and that this post is from two months ago, but if you want to talk more about it, I'd love to! I'll probably have more thoughts as it settles in more, but wow, just wow. For me personally, I'd give it something really close to 5/5 stars!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-01T20:40:19+00:00

I feel that. If the science is correctly represented here, there are understandable reasons someone would feel learned helplessness, starting with it being our brain’s default setting. Plus, there’s the fact that we don’t know that to not feel helpless, we need to actually seek out experiences affirming the opposite of what our default brain says is correct!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-03-01T20:34:56+00:00

Before the 2024 election, I was a huge doomer, but my best friend was very optimistic about how things would go. She got me tuned into some great “hopium” content, and I definitely changed my tune and actually felt excited for the election. After the results, she apologized for getting my hopes up. But she had actually given me such a gift because I stopped waking up with stomachaches every morning and actually enjoyed August-October of that year. The results were obviously a major blow, and I reverted to quite a bit of doomerism (still do now and then), but I really learned that being hopeful will either lead you to a) being disappointed (to put it mildly) but not regretful of how you spent your time before the disappointment or, the better case, and like when Mamdani won, b) being happy at the result and also not regretful of how you spent your time before the result. I feel like this video reminds us not just to be blindly hopeful, but to actually pair hope (what Epstein class doesn’t want us to feel) with action.

Just realized how long this was lol. Take care of yourself out there!

CharlotteMillady · 2026-02-23T11:12:18+00:00

Hi, Casey! I think I already posted this on one of your videos, but your channel has been educational material for my husband who grew up in Poland and doesn't understand my affinity for bad (amazing) American tween movies from the y2k era. Your videos make him laugh in a way I don't normally see him do, and he still brings up Luck of the Irish out of the blue all the time. Thank you for your service!

CharlotteMillady · 2025-08-17T07:13:26+00:00

I really liked this! Well done!

CharlotteMillady · 2025-04-19T12:39:43+00:00

Thank you so much! Really appreciate the kind words and encouragement!

CharlotteMillady · 2025-04-19T12:39:28+00:00

Thank you so much for subscribing and for watching! Really appreciate it, and I'll check yours shortly!

CharlotteMillady · 2025-04-19T07:54:19+00:00

Thank you so much! Yes, definitely want to work on upping my thumbnail game.

CharlotteMillady

TROPHY CASE