#2018 GOVERNORS AWARDS

[stylestream]

Lupita Nyong'o | Tom Ford Spring 2019 gown | Governors Awards | 2018

[choupistickfaitdesbetises]

"You're a sun.

Bright, beautiful, the world needs you.

I'm a moon.

Constantly chasing you."

Or, once upon a time, when Moonlight caught Sunshine…

[darkesttiimelines]

Throughout history, women have left an undeniable impact on society with their hard work, creativity, and dedication to progress. Unfortunately, their accomplishments have often gone unnoticed, been undervalued, or even stolen. Despite these challenges, brave women of today continue to push boundaries, break barriers, and pave the way for a more fair and equal world. It's our duty to keep going, so that future generations of women can inherit a kinder, more just, and supportive world. By following in the footsteps of the incredible women who came before us, we can create a world where every woman can flourish and succeed, and where their contributions are recognized and celebrated.

Joan of Arc is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War. Claiming to be acting under divine guidance, she became a military leader who transcended gender roles and gained recognition as a savior of France. She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church. She was declared guilty and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen.

Rani Lakshmibai was the Maharani consort of the princely state of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853. She was one of the leading figures in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 became a symbol of resistance to the British rule in India for Indian nationalists. When the Maharaja died in 1853, the British East India Company under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie refused to recognize the claim of his adpoted heir and annexed Jhansi under the Doctrine of Lapse. She rode into battle with her infant son strapped to her back, and died in June 1858 after being mortally wounded during the British counterattack at Gwalior.

Rosalind Franklin was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was instrumental in the discovery of the structure of DNA. Her contributions were largely overlooked by her male colleagues, James Watson and Francis Crick, who used her data without her permission or acknowledgement. This theft of her intellectual property and erasure of her contributions is a prime example of the systemic sexism that has historically plagued the scientific community.

Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress and inventor who co-invented a frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology during World War II that was used to guide torpedoes. However, her contributions were largely ignored and dismissed by male engineers and the military at the time. It was only later in life that she received recognition for her scientific achievements.

Emma Weyant is an American competitive swimmer. She was the US national champion at the individual medley. She qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in the 400m individual medley and won the silver medal in this event. Weyant finished second in the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. She was beaten by William (Lia) Thomas, a fetishist, who when competing as a member of the Penn men's team, which was 2018-19, ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle. Weyant is the fastest swimmer in the 500-yard freestyle and had her position stolen by a man.

Maryna Viazovska is a Ukrainian mathematician who made a breakthrough in sphere packing, solving the centuries-old mathematical problem known as the densest packing of spheres in dimensions 8 and 24. She was awarded the Fields Medal in July 2022, making her the second woman (after Maryam Mirzakhani), the second person born in the Ukrainian SSR and the first with a degree from a Ukrainian university to ever receive it.

Hannie Schaft was a Dutch resistance fighter during World War II who played a crucial role in the resistance movement against Nazi occupation. Schaft was a former university student who dropped out because she refused to sign a pledge of loyalty to Germany. Nazis arrested and killed her in 1945, just three weeks before the war ended in Europe. According to lore, Schaft’s last words were, “I’m a better shot,” after initially only being wounded by her executioner.

Shakuntala Devi was an Indian mathematician and mental calculator who was known as the "Human Computer" for her exceptional ability to perform complex mathematical calculations in her head. Her extraordinary abilities earned her a place in the 1982 Guinness Book of Records. Her lesser known achievement is that in 1977 she wrote what is considered to be the first book in India on homosexuality titled “The World of Homosexuals.”  

J. K. Rowling is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. Known for her philanthropy, she was doxxed and harassed after coming out with support for women's and gay rights in 2020. Rowling secretly donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to save 100 female lawyers and their families facing murder in Afghanistan. In 2022, she funded a women's only rape shelter in Edinburgh.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jeff Singer at Daily Kos Elections:

Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, a decision that could usher in a new era of leadership in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would become Minnesota's new chief executive should the Harris-Walz ticket prevail in November, an ascension that would make her the first woman to lead the state. Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would also be the first Native American woman to serve as governor of any state. No matter what, though, this office will next be on the ballot in 2026 for a full four-year term. Walz, writes KARE 11's Jeremiah Jacobsen, would be the state's first governor to resign since 1976, when Sen. Walter Mondale's election as Jimmy Carter's vice president set off a volatile chain of events back home that proved disastrous for Democrats. Following Mondale's departure for Washington, Democratic Gov. Wendell Anderson stepped down from his post and arranged for his lieutenant governor, Rudy Perpich, to appoint him to Mondale's Senate seat. These insider dealings, however, backfired with voters, leading to the "Minnesota massacre" of 1978: Republican Rudy Boschwitz trounced Anderson in the race for Senate while Republican Al Quie unseated Perpich as governor.

Walz's succession would be a far simpler affair, but there's also the matter of who would replace Flanagan in her current role. State constitutional law expert Quinn Yeargain explains in Guaranteed Republics that the next person in line to become lieutenant governor is the president of the state Senate, a post that's held by Democrat Bobby Joe Champion. Should Champion succeed Flanagan, he, too, would make history, as the first Black person to serve as Minnesota's lieutenant governor. There's a potential hitch, though. The 67-member Senate is currently tied because Democratic state Sen. Kelly Morrison, who is the favorite to replace retiring Rep. Dean Phillips in Congress, resigned in July so that a special election could be held simultaneously with the November general election. The rest of the Senate, however, isn't up for election again until 2026, so this one race will determine who controls the upper chamber next year.

[...]

But even if Republicans were to pull off an upset in this special election at the same time Harris and Walz prevail in the Electoral College, Yeargain writes that it's possible that Walz could time his resignation to ensure that Champion still becomes lieutenant governor. That would be a far better outcome for Democrats than the last time the number two slot became vacant. When then-Gov. Mark Dayton selected Lt. Gov Tina Smith to fill Al Franken's Senate seat after he resigned in early 2018, the GOP had control of the state Senate. As a result, Republican Michelle Fischbach was elevated to the lieutenant governorship and served for a year before waging a successful bid for Congress in 2020. Looking ahead, because Minnesota does not have term limits, whoever is governor—whether that's Walz or Flanagan—will be able to run in 2026. Voters, however, have never awarded an incumbent three consecutive terms. The last to try was Perpich, who staged a successful comeback in 1982 and won two full terms. But when he sought a third straight in 1990, he lost a close and chaotic battle to Republican Arne Carlson.

More herstory could be made in Minnesota: If Tim Walz wins the Presidential election (along with Kamala Harris), then Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) would be elevated to Governor.

If that happens, then she would be the first Native woman to be Governor in US history to serve the remainder of Walz’s current term and would be up in 2026.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

deAdder

* * * *

Former Republican representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming joined Vice President Kamala Harris on a stage hung with red, white, and blue bunting and signs that said “Country Over Party.” As Cheney took the stage, the crowd chanted, “Thank you, Liz!” The two were on the campaign trail today in Ripon, Wisconsin, the town that claims to be the birthplace of the Republican Party. It was in that then-tiny town in 1852 that Alvan E. Bovay, who had recently emigrated from New York, called for a new political party to stand against slavery.

The idea of a new party took off in 1854 when it became clear the Kansas-Nebraska Act permitting the westward expansion of human enslavement would become law. When they met in February of that year, people in Ripon were early participants in the movement of people across the North to defend democracy. Rather than standing against slavery alone, those organizing in 1854 stood against an entire political system, opposing the small group of elite enslavers who had taken over the U.S. government in order to establish an oligarchy and were quite clear they rejected the self-evident truth in the Declaration of Independence that all men were created equal. Instead, they intended to rule over the nation’s majority, whose labor produced the capital that southern leaders believed only elites should control.

In the face of this existential threat to the country, party divisions crumbled.

Pundits have described today’s event as a component of Harris’s ongoing outreach to Republicans, and in part, it is. That outreach, begun under President Joe Biden and continuing even more aggressively under Harris, is bearing fruit as in an open letter today, two dozen Republican former officials and lawmakers in Wisconsin endorsed Harris and her running mate Minnesota governor Tim Walz. “We have plenty of policy disagreements with Vice President Harris,” the Republicans wrote. “But what we do agree upon is more important. We agree that we cannot afford another four years of the broken promises, election denialism, and chaos of Donald Trump’s leadership.”

Lately, there have been indications of what returning Trump to office might mean.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested that the U.S. soldiers who sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBI) when Iran attacked an Iraqi base where they were stationed were not truly injured, but simply had “headaches.” Trump’s statement brought back to light a 2021 CBS report by Catherine Herridge and Michael Kaplan that found the injured soldiers had not been recognized with a Purple Heart, awarded to service members wounded or killed in the line of duty, despite qualifying for it. This slight meant they were denied the medical benefits that come with that military decoration.

The soldiers told Herridge and Kaplan that they were pressured to downplay their injuries to avoid undercutting Trump’s attempt to keep the casualty numbers in that incident low. With the story back in the news, Kaplan posted that after the report, the Army awarded the soldiers the Purple Hearts they deserved.

Journalist Magdi Jacobs recalled the argument of Trump’s lawyers before the Supreme Court that Trump could not prod a SEAL team to assassinate a rival because service members would adhere to the rules of their institutions. The Army officers’ bowing to Trump’s political demands proved that argument was wrong and set off “[m]ajor alarm bells,” Jacobs posted, suggesting that the military would not stand firm against Trump in a second term, especially now that the Supreme Court says a president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of official duties.

Scott Waldman and Thomas Frank of Politico’s E&E News covering energy and the environment reported today that two former White House officials said that Trump was “flagrantly partisan” when responding to natural disasters. One said that in 2018 Trump refused to approve disaster aid after wildfires to California, perceiving it as a Democratic state. To get disaster money, the aide showed Trump polling results revealing that Orange County, which had been badly damaged in the fires, “had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.”

Defending the Big Lie that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election, former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters in 2021 gave a security badge to a man associated with MyPillow owner Mike Lindell to enable him to breach the county’s voting systems in an unsuccessful attempt to find evidence of voter fraud. A jury found Peters guilty of four felonies related to the scheme. Today, District Court Judge Matthew Barrett sentenced Peters to nine years in prison.

But there are other stories these days of what the government can accomplish when it is focused on the good of all Americans.

About 45,000 dock workers in the International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike Tuesday when the union could not reach an agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group over a new contract. The strike shut down 36 ports from Maine to Texas, affecting about half the country’s shipping just as the areas hammered by Hurricane Helene desperately needed supplies. Dockworkers wanted a pay increase of up to 77% over six years and better benefits, as well as an end to the automation that threatens union jobs.

President Joe Biden reiterated his support for collective bargaining despite the threat to an economic slowdown from the strike. The Wall Street Journal editorial board excoriated Biden and the union, saying: “President Biden wants unions to have extortionary bargaining power, and he’s getting a demonstration of it on election eve. Congratulations.”

But today the International Longshoremen’s Association suspended the strike after USMX agreed to wage increases of 62% over six years. The two sides agreed to extend the current contract until January 15 to address the issues of benefits and automation. Administration officials White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, top White House economic advisor Lael Brainard, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg helped broker the temporary agreement.

The government’s power to make things better is also on display amid the rubble and ruin left behind by Hurricane Helene. Yesterday evening, after taking an aerial tour of western North Carolina to survey the damage and receiving a briefing in Raleigh, President Biden thanked both “the Republican governor of South Carolina and the Democratic governor of North Carolina and all of the elected officials who’ve focused on the task at hand. In a moment like this, we put politics aside. At least we should put it all aside, and we have here. There are no Democrats or Republicans; there are only Americans. And our job is to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can.”

Biden explained that the federal government had 1,000 first responders in place before the storms hit, and that he had approved emergency declarations as soon as he received the requests from the governors. Yesterday he directed the Defense Department to move 1,000 soldiers to reinforce North Carolina’s National Guard to speed up the delivery of supplies like food, water, and medicine to isolated communities, some of which are accessible now only by pack mule.

He has already deployed 50 Starlink satellites for communication, and more are coming.

Teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are offering free temporary housing, as well as delivering food and water. They are helping people apply for the help that they need.

While Trump and MAGA Republicans insist that Biden is botching the response to Helene, CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted that the response has gotten bipartisan praise. Republican governors Henry McMaster of South Carolina and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia both thanked Biden by name for what McMaster called a “superb” response.

So today’s bipartisan event in Ripon suggests far more than Democratic outreach to Republicans. It appears to be a commitment to a government that advances the interests of ordinary people, and protects the right of everyone to be treated equally before the law and to have a say in their government. Republican Abraham Lincoln articulated this worldview for his fledgling party in 1859 as it took a stand against oligarchs. Believing these principles accurately represented the aspirations of the nation’s founders, Lincoln called them “conservative.” People from all parties rallied to the party that promised to defend those principles.

“The president of the United States must not look at our country through the narrow lens of ideology or petty partisanship or self-interest,” Harris said today. “The president of the United States must not look at our country as an instrument for their own ambitions. Our nation is not some spoil to be won. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised: the nation that inspired the world to believe in the possibility of a representative government. And so in the face of those who would endanger our magnificent experiment, people of every party must stand together.”

"In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty,” Cheney said. “I ask all of you here and everyone listening across this great country to join us. I ask you to meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump.

“And I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for president. I know…that…a president Harris will be able to unite this nation. I know that she will be a president who will defend the rule of law, and I know that she will be a president who can inspire all of our children—and if I might say so, especially our little girls—to do great things. So help us right the ship of our democracy so that history will say of us, when our time of testing came, we did our duty and we prevailed because we loved our country more.”

Letters From An American

Heather Cox Richardson

October 3, 2024

[the-perihelion]

The Murderbot Diaries so far

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot. Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.

—Tordotcom

As we approach the release date of Systems Collapse, the much-anticipated newest entry to the series, new readers might wonder: where should I get started?

Here's an overview of books in the series so far, which are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook. The series is snappily written and easy to blow through: the majority of the series is novellas, with two free supplementary short stories, one full-length novel, and another novel to come. Links to retailers can be found on each page, courtesy of TorDotCom.

The novella quartet:

#1. All Systems Red, published May 2017.

I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

#2. Artificial Condition, published May 2018.

It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. [...] But Murderbot has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

#3. Rogue Protcol, published August 2018.

The reason I was wandering free and Dr. Mensah was on the news was because GrayCris had been willing to kill a whole bunch of helpless human researchers for exclusive access to alien remnants... If Dr. Mensah had proof of that, the investigation against GrayCris would get a lot more interesting. Maybe so interesting that the journalists would forget all about that stray SecUnit. Getting proof wouldn’t be hard, I thought. Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas? Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission.

#4. Exit Strategy, published October 2018.

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right? Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit. But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue? And what will become of it when it’s caught?

The full-length novel sequel:

Spoilers, but the PUOMANT registered ship Perihelion is in this one. 🚀 Icon by ChimaeraKitten.

#5. Network Effect, published May 2020.

I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are. When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.

The stand-alone novella, set prior to Network Effect:

#6. Fugitive Telemetry, published April 2021.

Murderbot simply wants to binge-watch its favorite soap operas and protect its friends from being killed by the powerful and nefarious corporation they've angered. But then a human corpse turns up on Preservation Station, and Murderbot leaps to action with security forces to help to solve the murder. "There's a scene in "Network Effect" where Murderbot shows Thiago a video clip of an incident when it stopped an assassination attempt on Dr. Mensah, with the help of Preservation Station Security. In the clip, Murderbot has a good working relationship with the Station Security people.  So I wanted to go back in the timeline a little and show how Murderbot's relationship with those characters developed, the rocky start when Murderbot was still getting acclimated to the station, and how the people on the station got acclimated to Murderbot. And I've always loved murder mysteries, so that seemed a fun way to do it." —Martha Wells, interview with Space.com

AND COMING SOON:

#7. System Collapse, release date November 2023.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize. But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

THE SHORT STORIES

There are two short stories officially connected to the Murderbot Diaries universe, both of which can be found for free online.

Compulsory — published 2018, by Wired.com as part of "The Future of Work" collection. Takes place prior to All Systems Red, sometime after Murderbot has hacked its governor module.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory — originally given free with preorders of Network Effect. Takes place after Exit Strategy, from Mensah's point of view, as she grapples with post-traumatic stress and Murderbot's refugee status on Preservation.

There's some debate on whether book 6 should be read in publication order or chronological order, but where to start the series is easy: start with All Systems Red and continue with the novella quartet, and if the adventures of the sarcastic, anxious, hypercompetent Murderbot capture your imagination, this post can help you decide where to go from there.

[lboogie1906]

Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 - January 23, 2018) civil rights leader, pastor, and theologian was born in Brockton, Massachusetts to John Wise and Maude Pinn Walker. He earned a BS in Chemistry and Physics from Virginia Union University. He married Theresa Ann Walker (1950). The couple had four children. He received his Master of Divinity from Virginia Union’s Graduate School of Religion.

He became the pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg. He served as president of the NAACP and as director of the state’s CORE. He founded the Petersburg Improvement Association. He became a member of SCLC. He rose in the organization, King appointed him the executive director of SCLC and King’s chief of staff.

His civil rights participation reached beyond his administrative duties. He was arrested in Birmingham for participating in a Freedom Ride. He helped organize the 1963 March on Washington.

He relocated to New York City to become pastor of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem. The congregation grew from 800 to 3,000. He served as an Urban Affairs Specialist to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. He earned a D.Min from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School. He released his first of several books: Somebody’s Calling My Name: Black Sacred Music and Social Change.

He became a part of the anti-apartheid movement. He became a member of the American Committee on Africa, where he co-founded the Religious Action Network. He served as chair of the Central Harlem Local Development Corporation.

He received national recognition when Ebony magazine named him one of America’s “15 Greatest Black Preachers.” He retired as pastor of Canaan. He earned more acclaim in 2008 when he was inducted into the Civil Rights “Walk of Fame”. During the inauguration events for President Barack Obama, he received the “Keepers of the Flame” award at the African-American Church Inaugural Ball. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and taught at the School of Theology at Virginia Union University. He was survived by his wife, Teresa; his daughter, and three sons. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha

[celebritycloset]

Carey Mulligan wore Dolce & Gabbana to the 2018 Governors Award

[damelucyjo]

Quick little update whilst I have 5 minutes!

Here are a couple of things I added but never made a post about (found this post sitting in my drafts 🤦);

Hannah & Colman Domingo presenting the Governors Award | 75th Emmy Awards

Hannah Waddingham on Working with Tom Cruise: 'PINCH-ME Phase' (Exclusive)

Hannah Waddingham Says ‘Ted Lasso’ SPIN-OFF ‘Wouldn’t Be for Me’ (Exclusive)

And whilst looking for something else today, I came across these interviews and behind the scenes for Winter Ridge;

LIFF Interview: Hannah Waddingham, Matt Hookings, Dom Lenoir | Winter Ridge (The Fan Carpet)

Interviews: Dom Lenoir, Hannah Waddingham, Michael McKell | Winter Ridge (The Fan Carpet)

WINTER RIDGE - London Live Interview (2018)

BBC Spotlight Interview - Winter Ridge

Winter Ridge Film - Behind the Scenes (Full)

As always, feel free to message me if you notice something is broken, have something you'd like to share and add, or if you're looking for something and need help finding it on the list ☺️

[saintmeghanmarkle]

📃 Megalist of 𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔 and Other 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑵𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 in H&M’s Political Orbit 📃 by u/SeptiemeSens (Part 3 of 3)

📌 Link to Tumblr post Part 2 of 3

📌 Link to Tumblr post Part 1 of 3

10. Kerry Kennedy - Daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, former wife of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. In 2022, H&M were awarded the "Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope" human rights award. According to Kerry, H&M were given the award for "standing up to structural racism" [source]

11. Members of Parliament (MPs) - In 2019, more than 70 women MPs signed on to a letter of support for and solidarity with the Duchess of Sussex. Their letter was in “solidarity” with Meghan Markle, as she waged a legal battle against the “often distasteful and misleading” press [source 1 // source 2]

12. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer - In 2021, Meghan sent an open letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) advocating for Congress to pass a federal paid parental leave program, even though Congress had already passed the program by the time M released her open letter [source 1 // source 2 // source 3]

13. Ndileka Mandela - In 2023, Nelson Mandela's granddaughter and social activist criticized H&M for using the former South African president’s name to pull in Netflix audiences in their Netflix documentary Live to Lead, saying: “It’s deeply upsetting and tedious.” [source 1] Shortly thereafter, Ndikeka clarified her comments saying that she was misquoted by international media and that she actually supports H&M for the courage of their conviction towards social activism [source 2]

14. Peter Cosgrove, Governor General of Australia and his wife Lady Lynne Cosgrove - In 2018, H&M undertook an official tour of Australia. The Governor General of Australia and his wife and family live in Admiralty House in Sydney. Harry and Meghan were accommodated in the guest wing, as is customary for visiting guests. Meghan demanded the whole house for her and Harry, and when refused, allegedly told Lady Lynn Cosgrove: "Don't you know who I am?" [source]

15. Rory Kennedy - Youngest daughter of Robert F Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, sister of Kerry Kennedy. Together with Liz Garbus, they run Moxie Firecracker Films, a film production company. Liz Garbus was the director of Harry and Meghan's Netflix docuseries [source 1 // source 2]

16. Susan Collins (Republican Senator of Maine) and Shelley Moore Capito (Republican Senator of West Virginia) - In 2021, Meghan cold-called Senators Collins and Capito on their private numbers, using her Duchess of Sussex title to lobby for paid paternity leave. She was given their private numbers by Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic Senator of New York. Meghan wanted to be part of a Senator Gillibrand's 'working group' to formulate policy [source]

17. Zwelivelile "Mandla" Mandela - In 2022, Nelson Mandela's grandson and the tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council criticized Meghan for suggesting that South Africans celebrated her wedding the same way they rejoiced his grandfather Nelson Mandela's release from prison after 27 years. Mandla said: "Overcoming 60 years of apartheid is not the same as marrying a white prince" [source 1 // source 2 //source 3]

📌 Notes:

Originally inspired by South Park's sweet 'n savage takedown of Meghan as ‘First Lady Botherer’ [source 1 // source 2], I then fell down the rabbit hole when I came upon so many other notable names. So, I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of "who's who" in H&M's political orbit and get a bigger (and better) picture of H&M's political motivations and machinations: past, present, and future

A LOT of sources come from our amazing SMM community here but unfortunately, SMM subreddit post links are not allowed as they are automatically removed by Reddit -- ARGH 😖

Thanks again for all the great comments and feedback on my previous popular post: "Megalist of everyone associated with MM via ARO, Archetypes Podcast, and 40x40"

If there are any notable names in H&M's political sphere missing from these lists, please comment below 👇

post link

author: SeptiemeSens

submitted: June 04, 2024 at 11:46AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[mariacallous]

In early December, a rightwing Wisconsin organization called HOT Government sent out a breathless email: Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman turned election conspiracy theorist and staunch Donald Trump ally, had nominated an important Wisconsin politician for a dubious award.

The prize would go to the person who exemplifies “leadership in BEING AN OBSTACLE TO STOPPING ELECTION CRIME”, the email declared.

Lindell’s target wasn’t a Democrat, nonpartisan election official or even a moderate Republican – it was Robin Vos, the powerful Wisconsin Republican assembly speaker.

The nomination reflects a stark turn of fortunes for Vos, who has spent more than a decade using every tool at his disposal to cement Republican power in Wisconsin, touting a deeply conservative record including on voting.

Vos helped re-draw the state’s legislative maps in 2011, ensuring Republican control of the legislature ever since. The same year, he followed former Republican governor Scott Walker’s lead in creating the most restrictive voter identification law in the country and passing legislation to kneecap union power in a state where organized labor was once the core of the Democratic coalition.

Vos was elected speaker of the assembly in 2013 and has used his years in office since to shore up his party’s minoritarian lock on power in the swing state. When Republicans lost the governorship in 2018, the assembly quickly passed legislation that curbed the power of the incoming Democratic governor. And after Trump lost the state in 2020, Vos initiated an investigation into Wisconsin’s election, hiring a promoter of the “Stop the Steal” movement to lead it.

He was in all respects a loyal rightwinger. But Vos has drawn a line at embracing Trump’s false claim that he actually won Wisconsin in 2020 and refused to join colleagues who suggested overturning the 2020 election. His unwillingness to cross that line has turned him into a pariah on the far right, a target of Lindell, an enemy of Trump and a symbol of the current state of the Republican party where loyalty to Trump is the key litmus test.

Now, Vos is fighting elements of his party that rejected the results of the 2020 election and have come to view him not as a hardline conservative who has done more than almost anyone else to strengthen Republicans’ power in the state, but as a corrupt establishment hack complicit in Trump’s undoing.

With the Trump flank of the grassroots Wisconsin Republican party as strong as ever ahead of the 2024 election, Vos is scrambling to appease his hardline party detractors so he doesn’t become a casualty of the movement he helped create.

“There’s a segment of the Maga crowd who despises him, because they adamantly believe President Trump was cheated,” said a veteran Wisconsin GOP operative, who spoke anonymously given his role within pro-Trump circles. “Where he is right now is kind of emblematic of the fight going on within the Republican party – here in Wisconsin and across the nation.”

From the young Republican …

Since he was a child, Vos led a political life. In sixth grade, he tagged along with a teacher to political events, then joined the Young Republicans and worked for former Republican governor Tommy Thompson before starting college. During his first semester at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Vos ran for and won a seat on the student senate and then went about lobbying every member of the Wisconsin state legislature for reduced tuition hikes.

His eagerness was rewarded two years later, when Governor Thompson appointed Vos to be a student member of the University of Wisconsin system’s governing body. Vos surrounded himself with other young Republicans: his roommate and friend at UW-Whitewater, Reince Priebus, would go on to chair the Republican National Committee for six years before working as Donald Trump’s chief of staff in 2017.

After graduating in 1991, Vos snagged a job as a legislative aide to Bonnie Ladwig, a leader in the Wisconsin state assembly, then returned home to Burlington, in south-east Wisconsin, and won a seat on the Racine county board. When Ladwig retired a decade later in 2004, Vos won her seat.

“Jim and Bonnie Ladwig were super close to me,” Vos told the Guardian, sitting at the end of a long and formidable wooden table in his Capitol office. Vos had been taking back-to-back interviews all day but he was focused and energized. “They were like a second set of parents – and then Tommy Thompson, I talk to him almost every week – Governor Evers, annually.”

Vos advanced quickly in the assembly, learning how to manage the personalities in the Republican caucus and when to make bipartisan alliances. Perhaps emulating his slogan as a college politician – “We want your views” – Vos earned the reputation of listening carefully to his colleagues and learning their vulnerabilities and strengths.

“I really want to be a consensus builder,” said Vos, who said he believed eking out a policy win, even a small one, was worthwhile – and faulted the contemporary Republican party for adopting what he viewed as an all-or-nothing politics.

Mark Pocan, a progressive Democratic congressman in the state, who sat on the joint committee on finance with Vos, formed an unlikely friendship with the legislator. “I always found him someone that I can have [a] conversation with,” said Pocan. “He’s very effective in knowing how to work his members to get things done.”

“Everybody seems to think that Robin tells everybody in the caucus, ‘You will vote this way, you will do this, you will do that,’ and it’s not that way at all,” said Kathy Bernier, a Republican who served in the assembly for five years under Vos’s leadership. “He will be always cognizant of the vulnerable members of his caucus.”

But Vos has also gained a reputation for cracking down on uncooperative members of his caucus and withholding committee seats from disloyal members. In 2016, he withheld committee appointments from three conservative lawmakers who had previously clashed with him. Most recently, his caucus removed Janel Brandtjen, an election denier and Republican staterepresentative, from her leading role on the elections committee after she endorsed his primary opponent.

None of the seven leaders of the Republican caucus in the assembly agreed to an interview.

… To ‘the prince of darkness’

Under Vos’s leadership, the Republican-controlled legislature has flexed outsized power in Wisconsin. While statewide races are often determined by vanishingly narrow margins, Republicans can comfortably count on strong majorities in the legislature – a product of the 2011 redistricting law Vos helped craft. He currently presides over a 64-35 seat majority in the assembly, which he has leveraged to strengthen Republican power in the state.

But Vos is quick to contest the view, held by many Democrats, that his legislative style is anti-democratic – or really anything but good, effective politics. “Democrats can’t accept that because they think the only reason they’re losing is the maps – maybe it’s your strategy. Maybe it’s your campaign, maybe it’s the issues you run on.”

Also in 2011, Vos helped push through one of the most restrictive voter identification laws in the nation; independent studies have found it disproportionately impacts low-income and Black voters, but the law has nonetheless survived numerous court challenges by voting rights advocates. When Wisconsin’s government accountability board found in 2015 that the legislature had failed to provide sufficient education around the new voter ID rules, a requirement of their own law, the assembly voted to dissolve the board.

After Democrats won races for governor and attorney general in the 2018 election, Vos rushed through laws limiting the powers of both offices in the weeks before they took office. The “lame duck” legislation, among other provisions, limited the governor’s authority to appoint leaders to certain state agencies and gave the legislature the right to hire outside lawyers to intervene in lawsuits. The power grab outraged Democrats and good-government groups and illustrated the lengths to which Republicans in office would go to wrest power from their opponents. A 2022 Politico article referred to Vos as the state’s “shadow governor”.

In 2015, Vos even tried to bring about a law that would shield state lawmakers entirely from public records requests. The effort failed, but he and other members of his caucus are known to habitually delete their work emails – a practice that, while legal, makes it harder for journalists and the public to access documents.

“When it comes to sunshine in government, Robin Vos is the prince of darkness,” said Bill Lueders, a political journalist and the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

He has developed a reputation for obstinance towards working with Democrats in office. In early 2020, while Republican- and Democratic- led states across the country delayed primary elections amid the rapidly-spreading coronavirus, the state legislature shut down attempts by Tony Evers, the Democratic governor, to move the date of the Wisconsin primary. In a viral image, Vos, donned in head-to-toe protective gear and volunteering as a poll worker, told voters it was “incredibly safe to go out”.

A ‘rigged and stolen election’

After years of fighting Democrats, the 2020 election brought Vos into a separate and unexpectedly fierce conflict – with his own party.

A day before the scheduled certification of the presidential election in Congress, as Trump supporters piled into buses headed for Washington, DC for a rally that would devolve into the January 6 Capitol riot, 14 Wisconsin lawmakers – including 13 members of the assembly – signed a letter addressed to Mike Pence, the vice-president, urging him not to certify the election. The missive, signed by lawmakers in five swing states, accused governors and state officials of “obfuscation and intentional deception” and claimed state legislatures have the final say in certifying the election results. The chair and vice-chair of the Wisconsin assembly committee on campaigns and elections were among the signatories.

Vos did not sign. But in a press conference that day, he told reporters he took the party’s rightwing base seriously and said the widespread doubt about the election results called for a re-evaluation of the electoral process. Since then, he’s sought to walk a tightrope of appeasing his base while refusing to bow to their wildest demands. But that has proven challenging.

Trump and his allies spent months filing lawsuits to try to overturn his loss in Wisconsin and other states. When his lawsuit asking the Wisconsin supreme court to toss out thousands of votes cast in Democratic strongholds failed, he tried to pressure Vos and other Republicans in the legislature to decertify the election themselves.

“I think it is unlikely we would find enough cases of fraud to overturn the election,” Vos told reporters at the time, suggesting that the state first investigate the 2020 election.

The Republicans’ refusal to actually attempt to decertify the election angered Trump. In June 2021, as Wisconsin Republicans gathered for their annual convention, Trump issued a statement accusing Vos and other legislative party leaders of “working hard to cover up election corruption”.

Vos has responded to Trump’s attacks by alternatively rejecting his wild claims while at the same time granting political concessions to groups peddling conspiracy theories.

Under pressure from Trump, Vos in 2021 announced an investigation into the election, appointing Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin supreme court justice who had bolstered Trump’s disproven claims of election fraud and spoken at a Wisconsin “Stop the Steal” rally shortly after the 2020 election, as special counsel. During his investigation, Gableman traveled across the US, speaking at an elections conference hosted by Lindell and viewing the discredited Cyber Ninjas election audit in Maricopa county, Arizona.

A year later, when the Wisconsin supreme court ruled that the use of ballot “dropboxes” during the 2020 election was unlawful, the former president approached Vos with another call to decertify the election. “I explained that it’s not allowed under the constitution,” Vos told WISN-TV 12 News in Milwaukee.

Trump was furious. Days later, the former president endorsed Adam Steen, Vos’s election-denying primary opponent, calling Steen a “rising patriotic candidate” and denouncing Vos.

Vos barely survived the primary, winning by less than 300 votes.

“One of my biggest regrets was hiring Gableman,” said Vos, who fired the judge days after his primary. “He was way wackier than I thought. He was disappointing. He was inept. He was way worse for the system.”

As Trump turned on Vos, cracks within the Wisconsin GOP deepened.

Vos was roundly booed at the state convention in 2022 for telling the delegates that lawmakers “have no ability to decertify the [2020] election and go back and nullify it” .That day, more than a third of the delegates voted to oust him from party leadership.

Vos will not break the law to try to win them over, but he’s still looking to win back some of their support – all while trying to keep himself and the Republican party in power amid a shakeup in the Wisconsin supreme court.

After voters elected liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz to the state’s highest court, Vos entertained the idea of impeaching her before she could rule on the constitutionality of the state’s gerrymandered maps, only dropping the cause when a panel of former justices recommended against it.

Vos has also come under pressure from election denying groups to oust Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s nonpartisan election commissioner who became a target of false claims that she broke the law to hurt Trump in 2020.

“As the leader, [Vos] takes the brunt of it,” said the state senator Duey Stroebel, a Republican who served in the assembly for four years and has, like Vos, worked on restrictive voting laws during his tenure. “He’s kind of the poster boy for these things.”

Vos has echoed calls for Wolfe to step down. But he has slow-walked impeachment efforts, referring impeachment articles to an assembly committee in November, where they have languished since. A group that goes by the name “Wisconsin Elections Committee, Inc” has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV and newspaper ads running regularly since November pressuring Vos to impeach Wolfe.

“It’s not gonna happen,” Vos said brusquely, voicing his irritation at Trump and his allies’ unyielding focus on the 2020 election. “Donald Trump’s unhealthy obsession with 2020 is not what Americans want to hear about in 2024.”

But at this point, it seems unlikely Vos can do much more to satisfy the far right base of his party. Even if he pivots and sees Wolfe’s impeachment through, a move that could destabilize elections ahead of 2024, the right wing will likely continue to ramp up their anti-democratic demands.

“As long as Donald Trump is politically active, they will be politically active,” said Bernier, who has been vocal in pushing back against Trump’s election lies – and counts Vos as a friend. Wisconsin activists who challenge election outcomes, she said, “will continue this until Donald Trump is no more”.

[stylestream]

Hilary Swank | Armani Privé Fall 2018 gown | Governors Awards | 2018

[choupistickfaitdesbetises]

When Timmy sees Armie and runs towards him to surprise him...

Happy together...

Beautiful and moving...

[starlightshadowsworld]

You make me do

Fatima Jinnah

Known as Madar-e-Millat or mother of the nation. She was crucial in the Pakistan's fight for independence.

And founded Jinnah Medical College for Girls.

Too much labour

Yasmeen Lari

Pakistan's first female architect. She went from designing shiny corporate structures such as Karachi's finance and trade center.

To helping build shelters for those affected by earthquakes (since 2005) with the resources they had available.

All day everyday

Zennat Haroon Rashid

Founding member of the Woman's national guard in Pakistan.

Her daughter created the "Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women" in her honour. Which works to support women who want to pursue writing as a career.

Therapist Mother Maid

Azra Haq

A member of the Woman's national guard in Pakistan who helped to support and aid women who had been abandoned during the partition.

Nympth and a virgin

Sheherezade Alam

A renowned ceramist who themed her work around the earth. Founder of LAAL, an artistic movement to promote and preserve Pakistani art and culture.

Nurse than a servant

Mehnaz Rafi

One of the first members of the Woman's Action Forum (WAF) who worked to help woman fight for their rights.

Just an apandage

Madeeha Gauhur

Pakistani actress, playwright and director. Founded the Ajoka theatre in 1984, which stages social themes in theatres, on the street and other places in the public.

Live to attend him

Bapsi Sidhwa

Pakistani world renowned author, essayist and playwright. Well known for her novels which reflect her personal experiences of Partition, her life in Lahore, diasporic stories, identity etc.

So that he never lifts a finger

Begum Ra’ana Liaqat Ali Khan

The 1st First Lady of Pakistan, became the first Muslim female delegate to United Nations. In 1954, she became the first woman ambassador of Pakistan and was sent to Netherlands. In 1973, she became the first female governor of Sindh and later on, the first Chancellor of Karachi University and Sindh University.

Begum Ra’ana was awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz. She was also given Order of Merit of Italian Republic, Order of Orange Nassau, Netherlands and the UN Human Rights Award 1978.

24/7 baby machine

Dr Sania Nishtar

She is the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection and the Leader of Global Health and Sustainable Development.

Since 2018, Dr Sania has been the leader of the poverty reduction program in Pakistan called Ehsas, which strives to provide livelihood and improve the social situation of many people in the country.

So he can live out

Muniba Mazari Baloch

Due to suffering a spinal cord injury at 21, Muniba used it as fuel to encourage women and girls that have experienced discrimination or violence to not fear or fight the pain.

She is as Pakistan’s first National Ambassador.

His picket fence dreams

Asma Jahangir

Pakistani politician, lawyer, and human rights activist. She chaired the Bar Association of the Supreme Court. She has won numerous awards for her work on human rights, including the Martin Ennals Award.

It's not an act of love if you make her

Tahira Qazi

A beloved Pakistani principle who was held hostage at her school with her students by terrorists.

Although she had the opportunity to escape and save her own life, she chose to save her students.

"They are my children and I am their mother.”

She fought for them but unfortunately lost her life that day, on December 16th 2014.

You make me do too much labour

Malala Yousafzai

Pakistani activist for women's rights to education. Fighting for her right to education since she was a child, getting shot in the head by the Taliban for her efforts.

She continues to fight and was the youngest person to be awarded a Nobel peace prize.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Ineligible, Bolsonaro gets honorary citizenship from allied governor

Far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro was awarded honorary citizenship of Minas Gerais state on Monday, by Governor Romeu Zema.

The motion to confer honorary citizenship to Mr. Bolsonaro in Brazil’s second most-populous state was approved by local lawmakers back in early 2019, just weeks after he took office as president. However, a ceremony had not yet been scheduled, despite the former president’s frequent trips to Minas Gerais during last year’s election campaign.

State lawmaker Colonel Sandro, a retired police officer and member of Mr. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL), authored the motion. Mr. Sandro was re-elected last year for a second term.

Mr. Bolsonaro was born in the city of Glicério, in the state of São Paulo, and served as a House member for seven consecutive terms (1991-2018), representing the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Continue reading.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

#10yrsago Which Congresscritters want to sell out the America’s laws to offshore copyright giants? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/stop-fast-track

#10yrsago Lavabit’s owner threatened with arrest for shutting down rather than spying on customers https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/lavabit-com-owner-i-could-be-arrested-resisting-surveillance-order-flna6c10908072

#10yrsago Little Brother inspired Google to encrypt its users’ traffic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icQtM64ah3g&t=2808s

#10yrsago Dutch ebook sellers promise to spy on everyone’s reading habits, share them with “anti-piracy” group https://torrentfreak.com/down-torrent-pirates-130813/

#10yrsago WalMart’s trove of decade-old, massive, low-capacity hard-drives https://consumerist.com/2013/08/14/decade-old-hard-drives-launguish-on-walmart-store-shelves-make-us-sad/

#10yrsago Why terrorist bosses are micro-managing dicks https://www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/business-habits-highly-effective-terrorists

#10yrsago Audio memoir of original Disney Imagineer, with free sex-and-drugs excerpt! https://memex.craphound.com/2013/08/16/audio-memoir-of-original-disney-imagineer-with-free-sex-and-drugs-excerpt/

#5yrsago 1,000 Googlers sign petition opposing Google’s plan to launch a censored Chinese search engine https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/technology/google-employees-protest-search-censored-china.html

#5yrsago Chicago police data reveals how dirty cops spread corruption like a disease https://theintercept.com/2018/08/16/chicago-police-misconduct-social-network/

#5yrsago Billionaire making a bid for Democratic Florida Governor nomination invested millions in Puerto Rican debt https://theintercept.com/2018/08/16/jeff-greene-florida-puerto-rico-debt/

#5yrsago Excellent advice for new law students https://www.popehat.com/2018/08/16/some-friendly-advice-to-new-law-students/

#5yrsago Award-winning security research reveals a host of never-seen, currently unblockable web-tracking techniques https://wholeftopenthecookiejar.com/static/tpc-paper.pdf

#1yrago How Democrats could win more elections: Do stuff. Make it timely. Tell people about it. https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/16/do-stuff-talk-about-it/#under-a-bushel

Back my anti-enshittiification Kickstarter here!