a fine line between silliness and supreme beauty

August 1, 2026 - Every morning in Gaza, the search for water begins.

Video journalist Bisan Owda follows children carrying heavy water containers, families waiting for water trucks, and the people working to keep one of the few desalination plants still running.

Along the way, Bisan reveals what has been destroyed, why clean water has become so hard to find, and what it now takes to provide water for millions of people in Gaza. [video]

“Let us not delude ourselves, gentlemen, the king’s flight is nothing more than the result of a vast conspiracy. Only collusion with the highest-ranking public officials could have ensured its execution. And you, Monsieur Lafayette, you who recently vouched for the king with your own life, do you think that by appearing here you are paying your debt…? You recently called the Jacobins factious. These factious, these murderers, are more generous than you: they are giving you asylum… But answer me!”

When Lafayette remained silent, still facing his accuser, Danton, overcome with emotion, retorted: “You swore that the king would not leave, you stood surety for him. It’s one of two things: either you are a traitor who has betrayed your country, or you are a fool for vouching for someone you could not vouch for. In the most favorable case, you are declared unfit to rule us.”

What insults! Traitor or fool: Danton traps his prey in this dilemma. Will Lafayette finally defend himself? He remains obstinately silent. In truth, this man of war is unprepared for such a fight. More accustomed to battlefields than to intellectual pursuits, Lafayette loses all his composure in the arena of partisan struggles. Danton knows this, and he takes advantage of it, toying with his adversary like a cat with a mouse. Recalling the French intervention in America and Lafayette's reputation, "which has soared from one pole to the other," evoking the principles of the Revolution and the general's evident role, he condescendingly drops these words: "You cannot withstand the distrust of a large part of the people, whom your actions irritate. I want to believe that you can be reproached for nothing but mistakes. France can be free without you! To be truly great, become once again an ordinary citizen."

— Page 133-124 of the biography of Danton, by Robert Christophe

How I felt while reading:

For a high-born noble or a larger-than-life figure, the act would most likely get framed as a "daring escapade", a "spirited display of youthful defiance" or a "classic roguish rebellion." It would become a colorful anecdote that adds to their legend as bold, unstoppable men who love life and pleasure and freedom and take what they felt was rightfully theirs.

So why is it different for Saint-Just?

Because starting with Thermidor, his story became synonymous with stripping him of authority. Invalidating it. Demonizing it. So this desperate flight from a controlling domestic environment gets reframed into a pathetic domestic crime to prove he was always a petty tyrant.

The fact remains that he was a victim of institutional and familial overreach.

The lettre-de-cachet was an extreme, authoritarian exercise of parental control. The only reason it was used was because there was actually no crime to hold him with: as the firstborn son with a deceased father, the silver was his by law.

Chuffed link

Raneen, @a00h2, is my friend. She is trapped in Gaza, Palestine, with her family. She lost everything in the bombings and is now in poverty and homelesness. Her 1-year-old baby has cancer; she needs to pay $5,000 more this month for him to finally access life-saving treatment.

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Her account is vetted by @90-ghost here, by @gazavetters (#576) , and by @bilal-salah0. This Chuffed fundraiser goes directly to her; for transparency, you can dm @a00h2 if you want to confirm it.

PLEASE, HELP SAVE THE LIFE OF MY FRIEND'S BABY!!

$5,200/$10,200

ONLY $5,000 NEEDED!!

if i shouldn’t use my cane because i can sometimes technically walk without it, it would just hurt like a motherfucker then abled people should no longer be allowed to use potholders to take things out of the oven because i mean