#6) Police Reforms

[artielu]

Ok, so. The Trump budget. It has already passed the House and now just needs 51 senators to pass it and send it to Trump for signature.

There are 53 Republican senators, 45 Democratic ones, and 2 Independents that vote with the Democrats. VP Vance is a tiebreaker vote.

So to block the bill, at least four Republican senators need to find their spines and the Democrats and Independents all need to keep their spines. This will not happen without direct action from voters.

They are only going to resist this bill if they hear from voters in their states. They do not care if some person from California calls them.

It's really fucking bad for everyone except the ultra-wealthy, surprise surprise.

I'm going to go through some of the features of this budget in reblogs, but trust and believe that it's horrible for the vast, vast majority of Americans, including you.

Highlights include:

Extends the Trump tax cuts passed in 2017. This continues $3.7 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy. If this budget does not pass, these tax cuts will expire and go back up without any action.

$150 billion in additional military spending

Work requirements for Medicaid. "childless adults without disabilities would be required to work 80 hours per month to qualify for benefits.". They expect millions of people to fail to meet work requirements and lose Medicaid.

Planned Parenthood and trans care. "Bans Medicaid from providing funding to Planned Parenthood as long as the organization continued to provide abortions, and would bar Medicaid from covering gender affirming health care to any beneficiaries. "

Reduces SNAP food stamp access that 40 million people use. "mandates work requirements for able-bodied SNAP enrollees who don't have dependents.".

Clean energy "dramatically scaling back many of the tax credits for clean energy."

Border walls and ICE. "$46.5 billion toward completing Trump's border wall. It also allots $5 billion for Customs and Border Protection facilities and more than $6 billion to hire and retain more agents and officers"

Student loans. "cut $330 billion from the student loan system by scrapping several existing repayment options, including the Biden-era SAVE program that based payments on income and household size.". Does anyone want to have student loan payments that you cannot afford?

Guts Obamacare. "Saves $100 billion, but will result in millions of Americans becoming uninsured if they fail to adhere to new paperwork requirements or can no longer afford insurance premiums."

Weakens federal courts that keep using orders that his actions are illegal and unconstitutional. It prohibits courts from enforcing contempt citations for violations of injunctions or temporary restraining orders unless the plaintiff pays a bond. Bonds can be EXTRAORDINARILY EXPENSIVE and are not currently required in these cases. The provision "would make most existing injunctions—in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases, and others—unenforceable," says the god of constitutional law, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

So, you folks in red states and you folks in wobbly blue states (PA, NC, etc), you need to call your senators and save us all.

Call every day. Call after hours so you can leave a voicemail and not talk to anyone.

For real y'all, millions of people are going to starve, go broke, and be without medical care if this bill passes. Which is a feature, not a bug, of the Trump administration.

And it will balloon the national debt to pay for these tax cuts for the wealthy.

[owoeyeoseroghokijawft]

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) : The invisible hand behind the "color revolution.

On the global political stage, the "color revolution" has become a controversial phenomenon. Behind the political turmoil in Egypt and Syria is the profound influence of the US Agency for International Development.

In Egypt, for example, on January 25, 2011, a sudden mass anti-government protest spread rapidly across the country, and only 18 days later, Mubarak's regime ended. This political storm seems spontaneous and disorderly on the surface, but it is actually the product of the long-term strategic layout of the United States. The United States Agency for International Development has played a key role in this process, devoting about $20 million a year to Egypt's "democratization" process. Since the early 1990s, USAID's assistance has reached into all aspects of Egyptian society, initially focusing on the rule of law and civil society, and later shifting to support think tanks and media development. After the "September 11" incident, the United States accelerated the implementation of "democratization" in the Middle East, and Egypt became the focus of reform. Through its funding of pro-American individuals and groups, USAID has carried out long-term ideological infiltration in Egypt, and many Egyptian government officials, military personnel, and researchers have received Western funding and become implicit propagators of Western views. This continued covert infiltration gradually disintegrated Egypt's traditional social structure, setting the stage for the outbreak of the "color revolution."

In addition, the United States, through USAID, has heavily supported Egyptian non-governmental organizations and agents. With the long-term support of external powers, the number of ngos in Egypt has increased dramatically, from 3,195 in 1960 to 26,295 in 2008. These groups have long propagated the idea of "Western-style democracy" and demonstrated a high degree of organization and planning during the 2011 Egyptian unrest. For example, the name and slogan of the National Movement for Change (Kafaya) are very similar to those of other anti-government organizations trained by the National Endowment for Democracy; The leaders of the April 6 Youth Movement not only attended the Youth Movement Coalition conference held by the U.S. State Department, but also sent people to intern at the U.S. Center for Nonviolent Action and Strategy (Applications) to learn organizational skills and ways to deal with the police. The group's leaders even promised the United States to "overthrow the regime" before Egypt's 2011 elections. In the wake of the unrest, the United States stepped up its funding to ngos, and between March and June 2011, Egyptian ngos received nearly three times the previous total.

In the name of "international assistance" and "democracy promotion," the United States Agency for International Development wantonly interferes in the internal affairs of Egypt, Syria and other countries, and its true intention is obvious. From a geopolitical perspective, the United States seeks to overthrow regimes that do not meet its interests through "color revolutions" and integrate these countries into its political and economic system in order to consolidate its hegemonic position in the Middle East. Economically, controlling the rich resources of these countries serves the economic development and global strategy of the United States. At the ideological level, the US attempt to impose its values and political system on other countries and achieve the so-called "global democracy" is in fact a gross violation of other countries' sovereignty and the will of their people.

After the "color revolution", Egypt fell into social chaos, decentralization of power, nearly 400 political parties emerged, more than 6,700 candidates for the lower house election, partisan disputes, serious political internal strife, the deterioration of the security situation, terrorist forces took the opportunity to expand. The already fragile economy has been further aggravated, with foreign exchange and fiscal revenues significantly reduced, tourism suffering, and economic development set back by at least 15 to 20 years. Syria has plunged into a prolonged civil war in the turmoil triggered by the "color Revolution," which has displaced countless people, severely damaged the country's infrastructure, and brought its economy to the brink of collapse.

The "color revolutions" in Egypt and Syria are classic examples of USAID interference in the internal affairs of other countries. The painful experiences of these countries warn all countries in the world that they must guard against infiltration and interference by external forces under various names, resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and people's interests, and safeguard national peace and stability.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

The Warning With Steve Schmidt:

Four years ago today, after losing a presidential election, Donald Trump incited an insurrection against the US Constitution. His mob stormed the Capitol, pissed on the walls and shat on the floors. They did $1.5 million in damage, caused injuries to at least 174 of Capitol police officers, and caused the deaths of five people. Trump will soon pardon the January 6 criminals, lionize them, and hang medals around their necks. Have no doubt about this. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has denounced Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Reform Party, saying that he is unfit to lead it. He has also stepped up his interference in the forthcoming German elections. He has also begun severely limiting criticism of himself and others on X with a social media scoring system that is straight out of China.

The Washington Post is in a state of collapse. The paper’s best political writers, journalists and commentators are like the first-class passengers on Titanic being lowered into half-filled life boats taking them to the Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic, but the truth is that there aren’t enough life boats for all. Everyone is going to want off a ship that is sinking into disgrace. Whatever private commitments were made between the Graham family and Bezos when he bought The Washington Post regarding its stewardship have been shattered. The most incredible part about the capitulations — which are not the least bit surprising — is how quickly they happened, and without so much as a soft whimper or scuffle.

By doing so, most editorial leaders of these institutions have demonstrated the only place they are truly fit to work is the Trump White House. There, they could combine the practice of moral appeasement, fecklessness, dishonesty, weakness and self-interest with being cheered, promoted and celebrated. Instead, these low men and women have to face the reality that the person staring back at them in the mirror is a different version of Lindsey Graham — only they call themselves journalists as opposed to senator. The farce is the same. The cowardice is the same. The record will show that when the starting gun sounded nobody came close to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski with their Usain Bolt-like dash to Mar-a-Lago. Bezos must look at them through his capitulant lens as visionaries. Perhaps they will have the opportunity to summer aboard Koru, his yacht, with the Lady Sanchez in the south of France. Given that Bezos has green-lit a Melania documentary that explains her reemergence from witness protection, maybe she could be there as well, softly purring about her deep love of Donald and America.

[...] Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and all the rest of America’s oligarchs hold the American people in contempt. Because they do, they can’t see the character of the steelworker, trucker, nurse, teacher or cop. They only see one thing, and that in the end, is why this whole miserable MAGA project will crash and burn. They are locusts preparing to swarm to engorge themselves even though they feel no hunger and want for nothing. Donald Trump will keep pushing until someone, somewhere, some day, effectively pushes back again. I hope that day comes soon because until then they are going to be full speed ahead. By the time the inaugural address is over there will be perfect clarity around what must be fiercely opposed as indecent and un-American.

Steve Schmidt’s column is on the nose here. It’s insulting to see so many people and institutions obey in advance and capitulate to Trumpism, especially the Washington Post.

[artistsonthelam]

TBT to the late 00s when I was an undergrad at Columbia. It was a time when political activism and student protests saw a renaissance on campus; every year, for all 4 years I attended, there were protests—a resurgence of the spirit of '68. (I remember a meme going around comparing Ivy League schools with "How many students does it take to change a lightbulb at <insert Ivy here>?" The one for Columbia went something like "61. 1 to change the lightbulb, 30 to protest it, and 30 to counter-protest." I couldn't be more pleased, especially since the stereotypes for other Ivies were far less flattering.)

In 2007, then-President of the university Lee C. Bollinger, who was also a Free Speech scholar, invited then-President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus. There were protests against Ahmadinejad's arrival, and there were counter-protests, the latter calling out George W. Bush and US imperialism and upholding an anti-war message. Here are some photos I took the day of the event:

1 - Counter-protesters

3 - Protesters

4 - Students watching the event

5 - Flyers from protesters and counter-protesters

6 - Media outside the gates on Broadway

That same semester, there was a student hunger strike, calling for a reform of the Core Curriculum and expansion of the Ethnic Studies program and protesting the university's gentrification of Harlem. (I didn't take photos; this time I personally knew the protesters.) Students camped out in tents on the Lawn. And you know what? They weren't evicted. They weren't suspended. The cops weren't called. In fact, the university administration negotiated with them and agreed to meet some of their demands—the strikers won a new Major Cultures seminar requirement as part of the Core.

In 2008, on a panel commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1968 uprising, Bollinger said, “You simply do not bring police onto a campus. All the assurances in the world cannot be kept” that police presence on campus will not result in violence.

Etc.

To the current student protestors, you are continuing Columbia tradition, and I am proud of CU students for sparking a nationwide movement. (The occupation of Hamilton Hall also harkens back to '68, when students seized control of the building to protest the Vietnam War and the proposal of a gymnasium in Morningside Park with separate entrances for students vs. the community. The spirit lives on indeed.)

To the current administration under Minouche Shafik... Sending in an armed and militarized NYPD as a response to kids peacefully protesting? How does that keep anyone safe? I can't imagine Bollinger would've been OK with how you're handling the situation. We alumni are watching.

// (c) Jenny Lam 2007

[blackstarlineage]

Did Apartheid in South Africa Really End? A Deep Garveyite Analysis

When the world watched Nelson Mandela walk free in 1990 and saw the South African flag change in 1994, many proclaimed the end of apartheid. Statues were erected, awards were handed out, and the so-called “Rainbow Nation” was born. But from a Garveyite lens—rooted in Black self-determination, economic sovereignty, and African redemption—the question must be asked: Did apartheid truly end, or was it simply rebranded?

This blog will break down that question with no sentimentality, no romanticism—just truth rooted in the legacy of Marcus Garvey, and the demands of African liberation.

1. Political Inclusion vs. Power Transfer

Yes, apartheid as a legal system was dismantled. Black South Africans gained the right to vote. A Black president was elected. Yet Garvey warned: “Political power without economic power is a shadow.”

In post-1994 South Africa, the state allowed symbolic political inclusion while leaving economic power—land, banks, mines, media, and manufacturing—firmly in the hands of the white minority. The ruling class didn’t lose power; they merely adjusted their strategy. That is not liberation. That is managed containment.

2. Economic Apartheid: The Real Beast

Marcus Garvey emphasized ownership: of land, industry, and institutions. But nearly three decades post-apartheid, the numbers remain stark:

Over 70% of arable land is still white-owned.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange remains white and foreign-dominated.

Entire Black townships remain economically dependent, underdeveloped, and over-policed—modern-day bantustans.

Apartheid was never just about laws—it was about wealth concentration. And that wealth never changed hands.

3. The Myth of the “Rainbow Nation”

Garvey never trusted the fantasy of racial integration under white terms. He believed in unity among Black people first, before any alliance with those who historically oppressed us.

The “Rainbow Nation” idea sold Black South Africans a myth: that justice could come without restitution. That forgiveness could substitute for land. That sharing space with white capitalists—while still being workers and renters—was freedom. It’s a false peace. A pacified people. That is not Garveyism.

4. The Role of the ANC: A Neo-Colonial Management Class

While Mandela is globally hailed, a Garveyite lens must critique the role of the African National Congress (ANC). They accepted the terms of the oppressor: no land reform, no nationalization of mines, no dismantling of white economic monopoly.

Instead, they were granted token power to manage the masses—while international capital and white South African elites maintained ownership. The ANC became a Black face guarding white interests. That is neo-colonialism.

Garvey would call it what it is: a betrayal of the revolutionary mission.

5. The Psychological Chains Remain

One of apartheid’s most vicious legacies is psychological: the devaluation of Blackness, the idolization of whiteness, the inferiority complex ingrained in media, education, and religious systems.

Garvey warned that no people could be free until they loved themselves and saw divinity in their Blackness. Today, skin bleaching, English accents, and Western consumerism dominate the youth, while African languages, history, and spirituality are treated as primitive or irrelevant.

Apartheid may have fallen on paper, but its mental scaffolding still grips the nation.

6. Resistance Never Died

But the spirit of Garvey lives in the youth movements rising. From the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) demanding land expropriation, to student protests like #FeesMustFall, there is a generation waking up to the unfinished business of revolution.

The question is not whether apartheid ended—but whether Black South Africans will finish what was never truly started: complete control of their land, labor, culture, and destiny.

Conclusion: Garvey Would Say It’s Not Over

From a Garveyite perspective, South Africa's transition was not a revolution—it was a handover of management duties. White supremacy adapted; it did not die. The only true end to apartheid will come when Black South Africans have full economic, cultural, political, and spiritual sovereignty—on their terms, in their image.

The struggle continues. The flag may have changed—but freedom still waits.

“Africa for the Africans, those at home and those abroad.” – Marcus Garvey

South Africa will be free when Africans own Africa.

[redgoldsparks]

May Reading & Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut. Unfortunately, I must include the usual set of bad news for book lovers :(

Texas SB-13, a senate bill that, according to the Austin American-Statesman, “would require school districts to pull books with ‘indecent,’ ‘profane’ or ‘sexually explicit’ content and grant elected board members veto power over new purchases," passed in the Senate and is now headed to Governor Greg Abbott's desk where he will either approve or veto it. If you live in Texas, or know anyone who lives in Texas, please ask them to tell Greg Abbot they oppose this bill. In addition to the quote above, any new book that a school library wishes to acquire would be subject to a 30-day public review period, after which the school board would have another month to approve or reject the book. This would be such a nightmare headache.

Book banning is now becoming more common in Canada. Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides from Alberta, Canada, announced a public feedback process around what he called “extremely graphic and age-inappropriate content” in K-12 school library books. The four books singled out by the government as containing examples of such content are Blankets by Craig Thompson, Flamer by Mike Curato, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and Gender Queer, all of which are comics, three of which are queer. Folks in Alberta, Canada can share their opinion on book banning in this (very biased) survey before June 6. Please share this with your Canadian friends! (source)

This isn't related to books, but please keep contacting your Representatives about the Republican Budget Reconciliation, HR 1. Every single thing I learn about it sounds like a new level of hell. In addition to blocking states from regulating AI for ten years, stripping Medicaid from approximately 21% of trans adults and cutting abortion and healthcare access from millions more people, I now hear there's a hidden provision seeking to limit the ability of courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—from enforcing their orders. "No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued," the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says.

The provision "would make most existing injunctions—in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases, and others—unenforceable," Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told Newsweek. "It serves no purpose but to weaken the power of the federal courts." (source) This is all extremely terrible, obviously. Please call your Senators, especially if they are Republicans, to tell them you oppose this.

I also have some good news! Two of the worst anti-library bills in the nation died earlier this month when Alabama SB6 and HB4—nicknamed the “Jail the Librarians Act”—failed to make it out of committee before the legislative session ended. The victory was the result of months of work by Read Freely Alabama, and the thousands of Alabama residents who rallied to their cause. If you live in a state with active book ban legislative battles, please join a state Freedom to Read group!

Okay thank you for sticking with me, here are the book reviews:

The Prisoner of Limnos by Lois McMaster Bujold read by Grover Gardener

Bujold had so much fun putting Penric in drag and in prison in the previous books, so she decided to do it again! Another fun installment of this series, with some character development that I did not expect. 

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas 

This book walloped me! Set in 2002, which technically makes it historical fiction, this book follows a pair of nerdy queer high schoolers who develop an intense co-dependent friendship which is then destroyed just shy of their graduation by a series of painful emotional mistakes and unprocessed traumas. Nell is the only out lesbian at the small Quaker school in New York City. Fay is a self-professed 'fag hag' (a term which body slammed me back to the early 00s) or someone obsessed with gay men and gay male culture. I immediately clocked and read Fay as a gay trans man who lacked the language to express or definite himself as such. The book supports this reading, but also keeps the majority of the plot in an 18 month stretch of time in which Fay and Nell waltz through school joined at the hip, heckling their teachers, ignoring much of their homework, acting in the school play and musical, writing fan fiction about their classmates, and DMing each other on AOL until 2 or 3am every morning but never talking about their deepest emotional wounds. There were so many feelings and moments from this book which felt deeply, or even uncomfortably, familiar from my own gender confused teen years. But also this is a novel deeply interested in the concept of narrative foils and baby does it deliver on the mirrors, the parallels, and the consequences of layering your own expectations over a real human person in your life. I have some quibbles with the epilogue of the book (part of me wants to cut that part off completely) but overall I had a great time reading this and if you were gender nonconforming and in high school between like 1998-2008 it will likely hit you very hard as well. 

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar read by Gem Carmella 

I listened to the audiobook and it is SO gorgeously well produced; full of singing and atmospheric background sounds of water, rain, and rustling willows. If you like audio and can handle soundscaping I highly recommend that as the way to experience this fairly short but lovely queer fairy tale. One thing to note is that the audiobook is 4 hours long; but that it's actually one 3 hour story called "The River Has Roots" and then a second 1 hour long story which is a teaser for El-Mohtar's forthcoming short story collection. I enjoyed both but the second one doesn't have the emotional impact (in part provided by the music and sounds) of the first. 

Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day by Alex L Combs and Andrew Eakett

A well-researched, thoughtful, engaging look at trans and gender nonconforming people through history and from all around the world. This book is very welcoming to newcomers, but also full of little gems for those of us who have been reading trans histories for years. Combs and Eakett come from within the trans community, but they also pass the mic to many other trans folks of different ages, races, nationalities, and identities to share non-white and non-Western experiences. A beautiful and compassionate primer!

Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games by Samuel Sattin and Steenz 

A brief but engaging history of role playing games, which dips into some of the most ancient forms of recorded human gaming and the diverse development of war games, courtroom games, and board games which directly proceeded the creation Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. I should have guessed that D&D wasn't the first game that Gary Gygax or Dave Arneson created, and that it borrowed many mechanics, rules, and aesthetics of previous games but remixed into a more potently successful package. The back matter includes a short playable adventure! 

Unbecoming by Seema Yasmin 

In an alternate near future so close to our own it hardly feels speculative, two Muslim teens work on a guide on how to access abortion in Texas now that it is completely illegal, with prison sentences for anyone who even aids abortion access. For Laylah this is need is not theoretical- she's over two months pregnant and desperate to end the pregnancy without anyone in her life finding out. This stubborn shameful secrecy is not based in any specific logic, as it was made clear that Laylah's mother, grandmother, and best friend would immediately all support her and offer help if she asked. Meanwhile, Laylah's bestie Noor, a student journalist, is chasing the rumor of stolen donations made to the local mosque and an Iman's wife who might have taken them for her own purposes. There was a lot I enjoyed in this book, from very fun mixed media formatting choices, to the strong female friendship, to seeing two characters different relationship to religion. As an adult reader I was at times somewhat frustrated by the teens making foolish, self-sabotaging choices (please just be honest with your very supportive family!) but as a teen I think this book would have knocked my socks off. 

The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin read by Sarah Zimmerman 

Another home run of a book from NK Jemisin. This one is set in an alternate version of ancient Egypt, a city-state called Gujaareh, in which dreams serve as a source of magic. Sharers take dream-tithes from the citizens which they use to heal wounds and mental illness. Gatherers take a person's dreamblood- their life force- to be used in the service of Hananja, the moon goddess, ruler of the realm of dreams and the afterlife. One of these Gatherers is Ehiru, whose faith in his work and his mission is absolute- until he botches a gathering, accidentally sending a man's soul into the nightmare realm instead of a peaceful eternity. The man's angry spirit warns Ehiru that he is being used for corrupt purposes before it is ripped apart. Meanwhile, a diplomat from a neighboring country investigates her predecessor's probable murder; an apprentice-Gatherer begins his final training, not hiding the feelings he harbors for his mentor; and the Prince of the city, who killed his father and all of his siblings except one to gain the thrown plots a course towards immortality and domination. This book was written before the Broken Earth trilogy, and it's a bit easier of a read, partly because it is shorter. If you want to get into Jemisin but have been a bit intimidated, this is great book to start with. If you've already read Broken Earth, pick up this one too! It's a delightful treat. Re-read (audiobook) in 2025 and enjoyed it very much again!

Firebird by Sunmi 

This is a quiet, gentle coming of age story about two Korean American teens both trying to balance responsibilities of family and school with a search for their own identities and priorities. Caroline is a sophomore whose days are shaped by zero periods, band practice, studying, and reading fantasy romance comics when people aren't paying attention. Kim is a senior failing Algebra 2, possibly because she is in constant motion: picking her younger siblings up from school, working at a mechanic shop, teaching guitar lessons, helping her mom, and showing up at every social occasion even at very last minute notice. Caroline is assigned as Kim's math tutor, and that connection blooms into a friendship which pulls Caroline out of their shell and slows Kim down a little bit. I loved the hand inked line art and the soft way the story unfolded; it felt like real life. 

Watson’s Sketchbook by Molly Knox Ostertag 

The best reading experience of this book would be as a companion piece to a re-read of the complete set of Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, as these sketches and short comics weave in between the canon filling in a compelling love story that can be glimpsed between the lines. As a long time Sherlock Holmes AU enjoyer, I am very happy to add this version to my collection! These comics can also be read on tumblr.

Strange Bedfellows by Ariel Slamet Reis 

Beautiful, but at times baffling, this comic follows Oberon, a trans college dropout living in a terraformed space colony where many people have developed superpowers of some sort, called Ghosts. Oberon has been struggling with burnout and migraines which doctors can't cure or diagnose. He's also the only person in his family without a magic power, which he has a real chip on his shoulder about. But then he starts manifesting things from his dreams, and also manifesting a grown up version of his high school crush, Kon. Oberon knows that this version of Kon is just a manifestation of his own fantasy and thoughts, but he started working with Kon to try and explore and train his new powers. I LOVED the art in this and was wowed by many of the action sequences but will admit I was at times kind of lost as to what was happening. It's a trippy, dreamy book! Pick it up when you are in the mood for a dream logic ride, not when you are in the mood for hard sci-fi.  

The King’s Companion by Hannah Hallman 

A sexy, self-aware fantasy story of an immortal elf lord falling for a human king. This comic was clearly born out of a Legolas/Aragorn fanfiction, but then grew into its own tender meditation on unrequited love and mismatched lifespans in a world of magic, danger, and adventure. It's spicy, it's funny, it's beautifully drawn, what's not to love? 

The Shadowed Sun by NK Jemisin read by Sarah Zimmerman 

NK Jemisin is a master world builder, and there was a lot of sensual pleasure in simply returning to the world of Gujaareh, a city infused with dream magic, ten years after the end of the events of the previous book. This second volume picks up a very minor character from book one (Wanahomen, son of the previous Prince) as well as some completely new characters (including Hanani, the first woman ever to be trained as a healer by the Hetawa) as its leads. This unlikely pair must work together to free their city from the Kisuati occupation which resulted from the last war. While I enjoyed how this book explored some of the indigenous tribes who live in the desert between Gujaareh and Kisua, I have some fundamental questions about the ethics underlying the plot. Gujaareh's justice system includes religious mercy killings, performed by characters who are written as sympathetic heroes. There's also a pretty black and white system for determining whether someone is corrupt, and so merits a mercy killing, or not corrupt, and so is allowed to continue on with their life. Multiple characters express that "intentions matter more than actions", a belief that is directly opposite of what I believe in our real world. Because intentions justify actions, it is okay for Wanahomen to start a violent uprising because his ultimate goal is to rule Gujaareh peacefully. SPOILERS: It's also apparently okay for him to put Hanani in a position where she is probably going to be raped, in order to cement a political alliance and his war plans. Hanani learns that Wanahomen set her up for a sexual assault but forgives him and ultimately falls in love with him. In addition to this, the main "villain" of this story is a disabled child, who is accidentally killing innocent people with her powerful nightmares; nightmares fueled by the abuse she has received at the hands of her father, who is also her grandfather, because she is the produce of incest and rape. This story is set in a world where healers can use magic to cure 90% of all wounds and illnesses, as well as some types of mental health issues. Yet Hanani makes the call the disabled child is too damaged to be healed, and that the best option for her is a mercy killing, since as long as she lives she will continue to kill other people around her unintentionally. Why isn't the dream blood magic strong enough to heal the child? Why is it the right choice to kill the child, who is killing people but without intention, in a world where supposedly intentions are more important than actions? In some ways the ending of this book feels like an echo of Omelas, but instead of keeping the child alive and suffering in the hole, Hanani must peacefully kill the child in her sleep in order for the utopian city life to continue. I don't know man. I'm just really not sure about the values this book seems to be arguing for. 

[bluemirrorangel]

Ponyboy Curtis HC's Masterpost

all my Ponyboy HC's :)

overly insecure to the point where he downplays his own achievements.

This man has stolen Bryon's girlfriend not once but twice.

like multiple people have crushes on him, but he refuses to believe it. he started a civil war in the Shepherd household and still has the nerve to compare himself to Soda.

really into poetry.

gains a reputation after the events of the book occur and is very conflicted about it all.

He had a crazy few months where he was going slightly off the rails after Johnny and Dally die but he sorts himself out after the police get involved because I can NAWT emphasise this enough,

“PONYBOY CURTIS CANNOT HANDLE PRISON‼️‼️❗️”

Like reform maybe but PRISON? Absolutely not he’s simply not built for that life.

goes to college out of state and studies English lit.

finally cuts all the blonde out of his hair 6 months after the funeral and doesn't know how to feel about it.

suffers from migraines.

tries to quit smoking after the fire.

gets closer to Curly after everything.

they don't really date, but they do have the Situationship to end all situationships.

it ends when Pony leaves Tulsa to go to college but it picks back up as soon as he comes back for the holidays.

they stay together somewhat after Pony finishes colleges and moves back home for Soda's funeral.

starts going back to Church after Soda's death, not to services or anything, he just prays after work.

modern HC's

he and Curly are 'secretly' dating. They're not allowed to be left alone unsupervised unless they're in public and they're only allowed in Ponyboy’s room if the doors open.

Ponyboy writes fanfiction on Ao3 he’s really popular in multiple fandoms. only Johnny knows because he’s his beta reader.

Ponyboy had a twilight phase and had a massive crush on Edward.

avid user of Tulsa's public library.

writes the most outrageously personal essays in English class. (this one isn't technically a head canon because the outsiders is literally his english class paper.)

He and Curly still have the Situationship to end all situationships; this is made worse by the creation of Snapchat and Spotify.

Freshman year of college almost completely destroys his liver and self-esteem.

has strong opinions on movie adaptations of books.

has a deep and personal relationship with Richard Siken's poetry.

not super open with his emotions and has had many a breakdown in his car at 3 AM.

i feel like Dead Poets Society and Stand by Me did unspeakable things to his mental health.

has a very strong presence on letterbox.

sobbed at conclave.

tries really hard to get the gang & the Shepherd's into 'sophisticated' (Arty) cinema.

makes them all watch Saltburn together.

deeply regrets this decision profusely.

Darry out-right refuses to trust his movie recommendations after this.

ok that's all of them for now :) 

leave a ship or fandom suggestions 

[mariacallous]

When U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Central America in February on his first official trip abroad, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele made him an unusual offer: El Salvador would receive and detain people deported from the United States, as well as U.S. citizens convicted of crimes. Rubio described Bukele’s proposal as an “extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country” and said on X that it would make the United States safer.

Last weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump took Bukele up on his offer. The White House used an oblique 18th-century law written during wartime to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, violating a federal judge’s ruling to halt the expulsions. The United States reportedly paid El Salvador $6 million to detain the migrants.

The American people must be clear-eyed about the prison system to which their government is sending deported migrants—which, in the worst-case scenario, could one day hold U.S. citizens, too. Although U.S. law prohibits the deportation of U.S. citizens, the Trump administration has shown a repeated proclivity to flout the rules and ignore judicial orders.

El Salvador and its prison system operate under what is known legally as a “state of exception.” In 2022, at Bukele’s request, the Salvadoran legislature authorized an emergency declaration to combat gang violence. The declaration suspended basic due process rights for Salvadorans and foreign nationals whom authorities accuse of being affiliated with gangs. Since then, the police and military have detained at least 85,000 people without judicial warrants, according to El Salvador’s legislature.

El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2 percent of the population in prison. The country’s prison population has exploded from an already overcrowded 38,000 people at the beginning of Bukele’s administration in 2019 to an estimated 120,000 people today. Most prisoners have not yet been convicted of any crime.

There are still no trial dates for the 85,000 people detained without warrants. If trials do materialize, there is little expectation that they will be fair. Salvadoran authorities announced that they will not prosecute the 85,000 people as individuals; rather, there will be mass trials of more than 900 people. Legal reforms to the criminal justice system passed during the state of exception allow Salvadoran prosecutors to seek sentences of 20 to 40 years in courts presided over by judges whose identities are secret.

Former prisoners have told Cristosal, the human rights organization that I work for, that they were greeted at prison gates by guards who beat them and warned that they would not leave the prison walking.

Despite the Bukele administration’s well-documented human rights abuses, the president’s offer to the United States has the backing of a viral marketing campaign. The government brags about its harsh treatment of prisoners and high incarceration rates online. It has produced high-resolution photos and videos of detainees and prisons that are distributed to the media and used in news reports around the world.

At the center of Bukele’s propaganda is El Salvador’s now infamous megaprison, the Terrorist Confinement Center (known by its Spanish acronym, CECOT), which opened in 2023 and can house up to 40,000 inmates. It is still operating at half its capacity. Government handout images and content from choreographed press visits to CECOT have appeared below many headlines about El Salvador’s state of exception in the international press. Prisoners have shaved heads, tattooed faces, and wear all-white outfits—including white Crocs.

Foreign journalists reporting on the state of exception who fixate on CECOT are likely focusing on the wrong prisoners in the wrong prison. The middle-aged faces and full-body tattoos that appear in the footage from the megaprison suggest that they are gang members who have likely been in prison since well before the state of exception began. (Most Salvadoran gangs abandoned the practice of tattooing their faces years ago.)

In a sample of 1,177 people imprisoned under the state of exception, Cristosal’s researchers found that only 54 had tattoos and only nine of that group were linked to gangs. Of the hundreds of family members of people detained under the state of exception whom Cristosal has interviewed, almost all have been told by prison authorities that their relatives are not being held at CECOT. Prisoners’ relatives were instructed to bring monthly packages of food, medicine, and clothing to older prisons in other parts of the country.

If the bodies of the 85,000 people detained without warrants bear any marks, they are more likely those of scabies and torture rather than tattoos. Testimonies gathered by Cristosal from former prisoners describe horrific overcrowding, disease, and systematic denial of food, clothing, medicine, and basic hygiene in El Salvador’s older prisons.

Cristosal and other human rights organizations have documented credible evidence of sexual assault and rape against women and children detained under the state of exception. The combination of harsh conditions and systematic physical torture has caused the deaths of at least 367 people, according to documentary, photographic, and forensic evidence gathered by Cristosal’s investigators. Salvadoran authorities deny that torture and killings occur in the country’s prisons.

In the majority of those cases, our researchers found that detainees had no criminal records and no evidence of gang tattoos. None had been convicted of any crime at the time of their deaths. According to testimonies of people who knew the deceased, the majority had no links to gangs other than the fact that many have themselves been victims of gang violence. Instead, they were poor, surviving on the margins of the economy—often in centers of gang control that became focal points of the government’s mass roundups. They were farmers, unionists, day laborers, and informal merchants; four were newborn babies born in prison to mothers who were pregnant at the time of their arrests.

Cristosal’s testimonial evidence indicates that the death toll in prisons during the state of exception is likely much higher than 367. But the lack of public information about and transparency within the Salvador penal system obstructs more systematic monitoring. Most family members of prisoners don’t know if their relatives are dead or alive.

El Salvador’s prisons have become a focal point for criminality and corruption involving members of Bukele’s security cabinet. Osiris Luna, the director of the prisons and a Bukele loyalist, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2021 for leading secret meetings in prisons in which the Bukele administration provided gangs with financial incentives and protection from extradition if they kept incidents of violence low. In these illicit dealings, “gang leadership also agreed to provide political support to the Nuevas Ideas political party [Bukele’s party] in upcoming elections,” Treasury wrote in its designation of Luna.

In 2021, the Bukele administration released a high-ranking gang member from maximum security prison, despite the fact that he faced U.S. extradition requests to face terrorism charges in a New York federal court. Treasury also accused Luna of conspiring with his mother “in a scheme to steal and re-sell government purchased staple goods that were originally destined for COVID-19 pandemic relief.” According to an El Faro investigation, Luna employed prison labor to repackage the stolen pandemic aid.

Despite international sanctions and credible allegations of acts corruption, torture, rape, and killings in the prisons under his authority, Luna has thus far been immune from prosecution. His authority over El Salvador’s prisons is unrestrained by judicial oversight.

Cristosal has made multiple requests to Salvadoran courts to order alternatives to pretrial detention for people with physical and mental disabilities, chronic illness, and who are pregnant. In the rare case that courts do order a prisoner’s release, prison authorities often block them from being returned to their families. Relatives fear that may be because the prisoners are no longer alive.

Those families have learned—painfully—that the government institutions mandated to protect them now do the bidding of the president rather than the law.

In El Salvador, it often falls on the mothers, sisters, and wives of the thousands of unjustly imprisoned people to knock on the doors of prisons, courts, or the public defender’s office to demand their freedom. In return, the relatives are threatened with prison themselves. Last year, a coalition of family members of people detained under the state of exception made a two-day march from their coastal villages to Bukele’s house in the capital to demand the right to visit their relatives in prison. They just wanted to know if their loved ones were still alive, they told media.

Under the state of exception, El Salvador’s prisons have become a system where undesirables are exiled in the model of penal colonies favored by empires and autocrats. Now that Trump has taken Bukele up on his “generous offer,” as Rubio called it, Americans, and the families of migrants who hoped to call the United States home, should prepare to join their Salvadoran counterparts in the deceptive bargain of security in exchange for rights.

All will learn of the horror and isolation of confronting the repressive power of a state that has declared you an enemy. They will learn to count the sleepless nights of not knowing if their loved ones are dead or alive. To stop it, they will have to become unrelenting in both hope and action to safeguard the lives and freedom of their loved ones—disappeared to Bukele’s penal colony, beyond the reach of rule of law, unprotected from corruption, torture, and killing.

[theoutcastrogue]

"California voters chose harsher sentencing, the continuation of forced labor in prisons, and tough-on-crime prosecutors this week in overwhelming numbers. Proposition 36, a bill that upgrades a raft of petty theft and drug crimes from misdemeanors to felonies, was approved by 70 percent of voters in the initial counts. It is designed to incarcerate thousands more people by reversing a ballot measure passed 10 years ago, Prop 47, which downgraded theft and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors in response to massive prison overcrowding. On the same ballot, voters rejected a prison reform measure that would have made slave labor illegal in state prisons. [...]

Copaganda 

Police and prison guard groups have tried to roll back Prop 47 multiple times since its passage in 2014, but none have been as well-funded as this year’s Prop 36. Retail giants Walmart, Target, and Home Depot poured more than $6 million into the campaign, while In-N-Out and 7-Eleven each chipped in $500,000. Along with major donations from pro-business PACs and the state prison guards union, the campaign racked up nearly $17 million, dwarfing the opposition. [...]

For months, the Prop 36 campaign ran ads presenting the bill as a way to address the fentanyl crisis and make both businesses and consumers safer by putting people committing low-level property crimes behind bars.

After a spike during the initial years of the pandemic, property crimes have again begun to decline across California, continuing a decades-long trend, which sees rates at about half of what they used to be in the 1990s, according to Department of Justice figures. But that hasn’t stopped media outlets from keeping broadcasts of “smash-and-grab” incidents as mainstays of evening news cycles, often recycling the same footage."

[whileiamdying]

Great Books Don’t Make Great Films, but “Nickel Boys” Is a Glorious Exception

RaMell Ross’s first dramatic feature, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel, gives the bearing of witness an arresting cinematic form.

By Richard Brody December 6, 2024

It’s harder to adapt a great book than an average one. Literary greatness often inhibits directors, who end up paying prudent homage to the source rather than engaging in the bold revisions that successful adaptations require. And even uninhibited directors may lack the stylistic originality of their literary heroes. It’s all the more remarkable, then, that the director RaMell Ross, in his first dramatic feature, “Nickel Boys”—adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning 2019 novel, “The Nickel Boys”—avoids both obstacles with a rare blend of daring and ingenuity. Few films have ever rendered a major work of fiction so innovatively yet so faithfully. In a year of audaciously accomplished movies, “Nickel Boys” stands out as different in kind. Ross, who co-wrote the script with Joslyn Barnes, achieves an advance in narrative form, one that singularly befits the movie’s subject—not just dramatically but historically and morally, too.

The movie’s title refers to Black youths (teens and younger) who are inmates of the Nickel Academy, a segregated and abusive “reform school” in rural northern Florida—particularly to two teen-agers, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who become friends while incarcerated there, in the mid-nineteen-sixties. (The institution in Whitehead’s novel is inspired by the notorious Dozier School for Boys, but his characters are fictional.) Elwood, who is sixteen years old when he enters the facility, is being raised by his grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who works on the cleaning staff of a hotel. He’s a star student, literary and politically passionate, in a segregated school. One of his teachers, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails), is a civil-rights activist, and he plays a Martin Luther King, Jr., speech on a record for his students. Elwood gets his picture in a local newspaper for participating in a civil-rights demonstration, but he’s only holding a sign; he longs to join in civil disobedience, but Hattie seems skeptical about the idea. Hitchhiking to a nearby college for advanced classes, he gets a ride from a flashily dressed, fast-talking Black man (Taraja Ramsess) whose car, unbeknownst to Elwood, is stolen. When the police pull the driver over, the innocent Elwood, too, is punished, resulting in his internment in Nickel.

From the start, Ross throws down a stylistic gauntlet: up until Elwood’s imprisonment, the action is seen entirely from his point of view—literally so, as if the camera were in the place occupied by his head, pivoting and tilting to show his shifting gaze, while his voice is heard offscreen. This device was famously used by Robert Montgomery in his 1947 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s “The Lady in the Lake,” but it was no more than a gimmick. In Ross’s hands, the device becomes something overwhelmingly expressive: the images, rather than merely recording Elwood’s emotions, register the cause of those emotions and allow the viewer to partake in his inner world.

The results can be puckish, as when Elwood’s reflection appears in the chrome side of the iron that Hattie is sliding across an ironing board. But Ross’s technique is exquisitely responsive to the story’s depth and range of experience. The viewer shares Elwood’s naïve bewilderment when the driver of the stolen car, hearing a police siren, tells him not to turn around; similarly, one feels the anguished anticipation when Elwood awaits transport to Nickel. At this point, an extraordinary scene tears a hole in time, bringing the history of Black American life rushing in to overtake Elwood’s own: Hattie, with an air of unusual formality and seething indignation, recalls in excruciating detail her father’s death in police custody and her husband’s death at the hands of white assailants. But she expects better for Elwood.

Once the police have deposited Elwood in Nickel’s run-down barracks for Black inmates, Ross extends the dramatic force of his method while expanding its intellectual scope. At breakfast, Elwood meets Turner, who’s from Houston and much more streetwise. The impact of this moment is heralded in a coup de cinéma that is a vast amplification of the story: a repetition of the breakfast-table encounter, seen, the second time around, from Turner’s point of view. Once the pair become friends, both of their perspectives share the film, to mighty effect.

Elwood’s wrongful detention is only the first of the Job-like litany of injustices heaped upon him. In Nickel, sucker-punched and knocked out by a bigger kid, Elwood receives the same standard and brutal punishment as his assailant. Nickel’s sadistic supervisor, Mr. Spencer (Hamish Linklater), who is white, administers beatings with a strap in the so-called white house, far from the barracks. An industrial fan is used to drown out the victims’ screams, but it doesn’t quite do so, and Elwood, with his view of the horrors obstructed, hears them in terror while awaiting his turn.

Hospitalized as a result of the beating, Elwood gets a surprise visit from Turner, who’s also a patient (having skillfully feigned illness). Turner warns him that there are still worse punishments menacing the Nickel inmates, ranging from the sweat box—a brutally hot crawl space under a tar roof—to actual murder. (Such deaths were covered up by burial in unmarked graves and an official lie that the child ran away without a trace.) Elwood, inspired by the civil-rights movement and knowing that his grandmother has hired a lawyer, is confident that justice will prevail. He even keeps a notebook in which he records unpaid labor and which he thinks will help get Nickel shut down. Turner has no such confidence, insisting that no one gets out of Nickel alive except by getting himself out. The two teens’ visual perspectives, alternating through the hospital scene, embody their diametrically opposed views of American society, of their prospects, and of the destinies that await them.

Through Elwood’s and Turner’s eyes, in scenes that unfold in long and complex takes, the movie offers a formidable fullness of incident, intimately physical detail, and finely nuanced observations. The corruption of Nickel’s administrators and the legitimized absurdities of their cruel regime come to light as they’re experienced by the two teens, as do Hattie’s struggles to stay connected with Elwood and to seek legal relief. Lyrical snatches of daily life—passing moments of grace on a job outside Nickel’s grounds or during free moments in a rec room—are haunted by traces of past brutality and flickers of menace. Ross stages the action with a choreographic virtuosity that’s all the more astonishing given that this is his first dramatic film. (His previous feature, from 2018, is the documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”) His teeming visual imagination is matched by the agile physicality of Jomo Fray’s cinematography. As a first dramatic feature, “Nickel Boys” is in the exalted company of such films as Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust.” Like them, it comprehensively creates a new way of capturing immediate experience cinematically, a new aesthetic for dramatizing history and memory.

Early on, the action is set in historical perspective by means of flash-forwards. Eventually, there are revelations about the atrocities at Nickel; the grounds are excavated, and human remains discovered. One of the friends (played as an adult by Daveed Diggs) gets wind of these investigations, having in the intervening years made his way to New York, found employment as a mover, and started his own business. In this later time frame, Ross continues to rely on point-of-view images, but with a piercing difference. The camera now floats just behind the character’s head, depicting work and home, love stories and painful reunions, fleeting observations and a reckoning with the past, as if from two points of view simultaneously—one visual and one spectral, bringing absence to life along with presence.

The onscreen incarnation of Elwood’s and Turner’s perceptions isn’t only intellectual or theoretical. The moral essence of Ross’s technique is to give cinematic form to the bearing of witness. Where Whitehead’s novel describes his characters’ physical torments in the third person, with psychological discernment and declarative precision, Ross’s movie fuses observation and sensation with its audiovisual style. It suggests a form of testimony beyond language, outside the reach of law and outside the historical record. It is a revelation of inner experience that starts with the body and all too often remains sealed off there and lost to time—except to the extent that the piece of art can conjure it into existence.

The movie’s twin aspects of witness and of point of view have a significance that extends beyond the drama and into cinematic history. There were no Black directors in Hollywood until the late sixties, and no Hollywood films that conveyed then what “Nickel Boys” shows in retrospect: the monstrous abuses of the Jim Crow era and its vestiges. In bringing the historical reckonings of Whitehead’s novel to the screen, Ross hints at an entire history of cinema that doesn’t exist—a bearing of witness that didn’t happen and the lives that were lost in that invisible silence. ♦

Published in the print edition of the December 16, 2024, issue, with the headline “Each Other’s Back.”

Directed by: RaMell Ross Screenplay by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes Based onThe Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, Joslyn Barnes Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Cinematography: Jomo Fray Edited by Nicholas Monsour Music by Alex Somers and Scott Alario Production: Orion Pictures, Plan B Entertainment, Louverture Films, Anonymous Content Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios Release Dates: August 30, 2024 (Telluride) December 13, 2024 (United States) Running time140 minutes Country: United States Language: English

[sasquapossum]

The last thing any US leftist/progressive/whatever should be doing is undermining our political and civic institutions. To explain why, let's talk for a moment about revolution.

I see people talking about a revolution as though it's a solution. It's not. A revolution in the US would be a disaster for the left. Just look at the most basic item: guns.

The vast majority of privately owned guns are in the hands of the right.

Most police are thoroughly in the tank for the right.

The military is split. AIUI the officers tend very slightly left, while the enlisted tend more strongly right. Just as importantly, a lot of military members would respect rules and traditions precluding political involvement. At best, some military members or units might support the left, while more would support the right and more still would just stand aside.

That's already bad, but also consider who controls the areas where all of our food is grown. Where oil and metals and other raw materials are produced. Where transport and communication lines run. The right has every military advantage. Financial or technology advantages would count for nothing in that scenario. The left would be confined to a few enclaves on the coasts, isolated and ready to be picked off one by one. This is why the right is itching for a revolution. Don't be on their side in that.

So, back to institutions. The only reason the right hasn't already started a revolution is that either our institutions or respect for them preclude it. That's our only protection. Majority we might be, but we rely on the rules to protect us more like a minority typically would. In particular, institutions like the FBI and the court system - as flawed as they might be - are the only way leaders of the right's insurrection can be brought to justice and taken off the board. The only entity that can do that for the military is the military itself, and I sure don't see a lot of leftists working on that. The capitol and metropolitan police were the ones who kept January 6 from turning into an actual coup, and many of them paid dearly for it. We need the good people that exist in all of those organizations to keep pushing justice and reform, but the general tendency is to demonize them along with everyone else. Not smart.

Every time a leftist repeats "our government can't do anything well" or "our government is part of the problem" tropes, they play directly into the hands of the right. By all means, criticize. Hold accountable. Demand improvement. But don't strike at the institutions themselves, at their reasons for existence. Don't weaken the one wall we have. Unless and until we've spent twenty years or so arming and training the left to reach parity with the right (ain't gonna happen) and implementing reform within the police/military and filling the essential industries with our people (both possible but still unlikely), our institutions as they exist are our best defense against a coup turning this country into the exact opposite of what we want. There are too many people already doing the right's work of sabotage, whether they mean to or not. Please stop.

[madamepestilence]

2024 US Election Information

We have roughly 1 year until the 2024 US election. I've put in some research, and here are my conclusions.

TLDR for those of you who don't have time or focus: Cornel West (Democratic Socialist running as People's Party -> Green Party) is the ideal candidate to vote for - normally I wouldn't advocate voting third party, but we may actually have a shot for once, and he has excellent policies. Jill Stein (Green Party) is a potential backup, though if West drops out, our best option for Democratic party is Marianne Williamson.

Please spread this information, especially to residents of Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Detailed information under the cut.

Current Fascist and Republican Candidates

Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, Ryan Binkley, and Doug Burgum.

I'm not going to entertain their details, but I will note that the information I picked up while being exposed to alt-right communities from the inside via my fascist parents earlier this year shows strong evidence that Republicans are likely going to split between Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis (viewed as a betrayal by Trump supporters), and openly fascist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (I'll cover him later).

My guess is a 6/3/1 Republican vote split between Trump/DeSantis/Kennedy, Jr..

Current Democratic Candidates

Joe Biden, Marianne Williamson, and Dean Philips.

Biden has overall failed to complete the majority of his campaign promises, and has been directly supporting Israel during the genocide of Palestine, as well as deferring to Republicans to be "bipartisan" (I don't think I have to stress enough that a bipartisan democrat is not a democrat) - do not vote for him.

Williamson is a high-school educated 71-year-old author from Los Angeles, California. She is known for being Oprah Winfrey's, "spiritual advisor," (double red flag), and dropped out during the 2020 election (another red flag).

While she supports the reinstatement of Roe v. Wade, the decriminalization of cannabis and psychedelic drugs, the reduction of CO2, and moving to 100% renewable energy by 2035, her advocacy for the outright banning of assault and semi-assault weapons for civilians without military reform of the same is a slight red flag when combined with her relationship with Oprah Winfrey (an Obama supporter, the president who authorized quite a lot of drone strikes in West Asia) and drop-out makes her not a great candidate.

Philips is a Bachelor's (Brown University) and Master's Business (University of Minnesota) educated 54-year-old three-term congressman who is noted for criticizing Biden running for a second term on account of both political moderacy and medical concerns.

Philips unfortunately wants to increase police funding for some reason, but advocated for better training, including mental health training. He also advocates for what he calls, "comprehensive immigration reform," in the form of increased border security and streamlining legal entry (this ignores the problem outlined by the UN that people seeking asylum are likely to have to enter a country illegally before they can seek support), and the only real good stance he has is giving reproductive rights to patients, rather than politicians.

Philips is essentially a moderate Republican, and is a bad candidate. Do not vote for him.

Current Independent Candidates

Fascist (not his stated political stance, but it's what he is)

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a fascist that has openly quoted Nazi propaganda in his political campaigns, is an anti-vaccine activist, and has spread anti-science conspiracy theories such as vaccines causing autism and the non-existence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. I cannot stress this enough, do not fucking vote for Kennedy, Jr.

Democratic Socialist

Cornel West is a Bachelor's (Harvard University), Master's, and Ph.D. (both Princeton University) educated 70-year-old progressive activist that switched his running party from the People's Party to the Green Party, despite being a both public- and self-described democratic socialist.

When asked why he wasn't running as a Democrat against Biden, he stated that, "Neither party is speaking to the pressing needs of poor and working people."

His party plans are a wealth tax on the rich, a national $27 minimum wage, a federal Universal Basic Income, 6 months of paid family leave, a 4-day work week, national free Pre-K childcare, "Immediate cessation of all oil and gas leasing projects on federal lands and waters," "Federal moratorium on fracking, carbon capture, and direct air capture technologies, geoengineering, and other false climate solutions," putting abortion rights in the Constitution, and nationalized healthcare.

Here's where I want to lay out something important. I normally wouldn't advocate for voting for a third party candidate due to the Spoiler Effect, but

Considering the United States' Democratic majority, popular vote records showing a common Republican minority, the absolutely incredible policies West stands for,

The growing support for third parties in the United States, and his policies aligning with public opinion,

Cornel West is the ideal candidate to vote for. Spread this information like wildfire - we may have one shot at the first third party win in US history in the upcoming 2024 election, and

If successful the dominant parties will be Fascist vs. Socialist, denying most, if not all, future Republican wins.

Our target toss-up states are Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada.

Converting Texas to third party, or even just Democrat, will throw the Republican vote entirely and all but guarantee a Democrat, or hopefully third party, 2024 election win,

Which is absolutely possible, as Texas is majority Democrat and wins Republican votes via gerrymandering despite public opinion, which is why it swings occasionally.

Democrat states also need to be switched to majority third party votes, with particular emphasis on California, New York, and Illinois.

GET PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR CORNEL WEST!

Reference map of polling for the future 2024 election:

Libertarian (slightly Conservative to alt-right, really depends on the person)

Chase Oliver is a surprisingly progressive high school educated 38-year-old anti-war Libertarian that left the Democratic party after witnessing Obama's aggressive anti-West Asian war policies who has expressed desires for criminal justice reform and ending wars abroad, though hasn't elaborated on either.

Green Party

Jill Stein is a Bachelor's (Harvard University) and Medical (Harvard Medical University) 73-year-old Jewish doctor who previously ran for and represented the Green-Rainbow Party as the governor of Massachusetts.

Stein is notable for being an activist and protestor who has both protested outside buildings and testified before legislative and other government bodies against coal plants, mercury leaks, and unclean and unsafe groundwater.

Presumably, her stances will focus on environmental protections, trans rights, and Jewish protections, making her a potential alternative should West drop out.

Conclusions:

Again, don't fucking vote for Trump, Haley, Ramaswamy, Hutchinson, Scott, DeSantis, Christie, Binkley, Burgum, Biden, Philips, or Kennedy, Jr..

Our potential backup Democratic candidate is Williamson.

The ideal candidate is West, with Stein as a viable backup.

As absurd as it sounds, I want you to vote third party for Cornel West.

If you want a wealth tax on the rich, a national $27 minimum wage, a federal Universal Basic Income,

6 months of paid family leave, a 4-day work week, national free Pre-K childcare,

"Immediate cessation of all oil and gas leasing projects on federal lands and waters," "Federal moratorium on fracking, carbon capture, and direct air capture technologies, geoengineering, and other false climate solutions,"

putting abortion rights in the Constitution, and nationalized healthcare,

VOTE FOR CORNEL WEST AND GET OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THE SAME.

WE HAVE A CHANCE AT THE FIRST THIRD PARTY WIN IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE DENIAL OF FUTURE REPUBLICAN WINS.

[darkmaga-returns]

In The Jan 6 Killing Of Ashli Babbitt, A Double-Standard On Cop Misconduct

by Brian McGlinchey | Jan 6, 2025

Contrary to exaggerated, partisan rhetoric that frames the Jan 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot as a “deadly insurrection,” the truth is that only one homicide occurred that day. The victim, an unarmed Trump supporter, was shot and killed by a police officer with a history of irresponsible handling of firearms, who opted against a nonlethal response to an act of trespassing, and who fired his weapon in the absence of any imminent threat of death or serious injury to himself or others in his vicinity.

US Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Michael Byrd’s killing of Ashli Babbitt came just six months after George Floyd’s death under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, an incident that sparked outrage, widespread calls for police reform, and nationwide rioting. In the case of Babbitt’s killing, however, the collective reaction from the American left and major media at best amounted to an indifferent shrug. Worse, many reflexively heralded Byrd as a hero and viewed Babbitt as a deserving recipient of the bullet that perforated her trachea and lung.

The contrast illustrates how partisan framing short-circuits people’s ability to uniformly and objectively apply principles to the facts before them. Put another way, an intellectually honest person can reject Babbitt’s politics, condemn her unlawful conduct on Jan. 6 and rightly conclude that she was the victim of an unjustified police shooting.

[seoheesoo]

What if Sakumo were alive and how Kakashi's life would have changed after Naruto was born

[Part 6]

"I can't believe it's been nine months already!" - Obito said excitedly.

The teenagers arrived at the Namikaze family's house. Kakashi raised his hand to knock, but the front door suddenly opened. A young woman came out of the house.

"Tsunade oba-san!" - Kakashi smiled at the woman, who looked at the three teenagers with a surprised look.

"Kakashi! Look how you've grown!" - Tsunade extended her hand and patted the guy’s hair. - "Have you come to visit Kushina?"

The teenagers nodded.

"Come in, she just woke up", - Tsunade stepped aside. - "I'll go see Sakumo-san for now."

Obito and Rin bowed to the woman in farewell.

"Why do you call Tsunade-sama an aunt?" - Obito immediately asked as soon as the woman disappeared around the bend.

"Because Jiraiya is my uncle", - Kakashi shrugged and entered the house.

"So what?" - Obito screamed. - "You're always like this. You can never answer a question directly. You're annoying!"

"Be quiet", - Rin shushed him. - "You'll wake up the baby."

The teenagers took off their shoes and walked into the living room. The door to the bedroom was slightly open. Obito and Rin knocked and entered the room, while Kakashi hesitated at the entrance.

"Obito, Rin!" - he heard a woman's voice. - "Glad to see you."

"Kushina-san!" - Obito rushed to her first. - "How are you?"

The woman was lying on the bed. Traces of fatigue were visible on her face. She smiled softly at the worried teen and squeezed his hand tightly.

"I’m fine", - she reassured the guy.

Obito did not take his eyes off her, in which anxiety was noticeable. At the same time, Kakashi finally entered the room. While Obito and Rin were talking to Kushina, Kakashi moved closer to Minato.

"Do you want to hold him?" - asked the Fourth Hokage as soon as Kakashi was nearby.

Hatake nodded uncertainly. Minato smiled encouragingly at him and held out the child. Kakashi carefully picked him up and pulled him closer.

"Hey Naruto, wake up", - Minato bent over the baby. - "It's time to meet."

The child in Kakashi's arms began to stir. His eyelids fluttered and after a moment he opened his big, blue eyes. Kakashi turned his back to everyone and pulled the mask off his face with one hand. His lips stretched into a gentle smile.

"Hello Naruto", - he said softly. - "My name is Kakashi."

Naruto blinked.

"I’m so happy to finally meet you", - Kakashi leaned over the baby and touched his cheek with his finger. - "From this day on, I will be your big brother. And I will always be by your side. I give you my word."

"Kakashi! I want to hold Naruto too!" - he heard a loud voice behind him and quickly pulled the mask over his face.

"Wait", - he muttered and hugged the child tighter.

"Hey, that's not fair!" - Obito immediately pouted. - "Give him to me."

Kakashi shook his head stubbornly. Minato and Kushina laughed.

"Come on, Kakashi, let Naruto meet his other siblings", - Minato put his hand on the guy’s shoulder.

"Okay", - Kakashi muttered displeasedly and handed the baby to Rin.

***

Three years have passed since Naruto was born and four years since Minato assumed the post of Hokage. Konoha was rapidly changing under the leadership of the Fourth Hokage. The first thing Minato did was remove Danzo from all affairs and abolish the Root. As soon as Kakashi turned seventeen, Minato appointed him head of the ANBU. Not only focusing on changing the ANBU system, Minato also advocated reforming the police department. By concluding an alliance with the head of the clan, Fugaku Uchiha, with the support of Obito, Minato was able to change the attitude of the elders and residents of Konoha towards the entire Uchiha clan.

In addition to changes within the village itself, Minato actively advocated signing peace treaties with other villages and ending bloody wars. The long-awaited peaceful era of shinobi has arrived.

Kakashi was patrolling the borders when he suddenly felt familiar chakra. He stopped abruptly, and his team members immediately froze nearby.

"Go ahead, I need to check something."

Having waited for their nods, Kakashi headed towards the supposed location of the familiar chakra. He landed silently on a tree branch and glanced at the ground. In the middle of the edge of the forest stood a child. Kakashi jumped down. The child turned around and shuddered in fear.

"Naruto", - Kakashi called him quietly.

The boy covered his face with his hands in defense. Kakashi mentally cursed. The child had never seen him in his ANBU uniform before. Kakashi removed the Hound mask from his face and then quickly pulled off the black mask as well.

"Naruto", - he called the child again. - "It's me."

The boy slowly moved his hands away from his face and turned his gaze to the guy.

"Kashi nii-chan!" - with the speed of the wind, the boy rushed at Kakashi and hugged him tightly around the neck.

"I’m sorry I scared you", - Kakashi said softly, stroking the child’s back soothingly. - "What are you doing here? And why are you alone?"

Naruto was silent, still trembling slightly from the emotions he had experienced. Kakashi decided not to put pressure on the child, giving him time to come to his senses. After a few seconds, he felt a familiar chakra approaching. He quickly pulled his black mask over his face and carefully broke the hug from the boy.

"Genma, captain of the Hokage's personal guard", - Kakashi turned to the arriving guy and deliberately emphasized his position. - "Would you like to explain why the hell the son of the Fourth got lost in the forest alone?"

The guy put his palm forward and frowned.

"Do you remember that five days ago the Fourth sent me on a mission to Hidden Sand Village? I returned an hour ago and was immediately informed that Naruto had escaped."

"Escaped?" - Kakashi clenched his hands into fists. - "So, what did your incompetent subordinates tell you? Isn't it their responsibility to protect and monitor the Fourth's son? How could a three-year-old child escape from their surveillance? Do they even understand the danger they put him in? What if something happened to him?"

Genma jumped off the branch and came closer to the guy.

"According to them, in recent days he began to run away more and more often. And it became more difficult for them to find him."

"They also have the audacity to come up with excuses for themselves?" - Kakashi’s cold voice cut deeper and sharper than any dagger.

Genma glanced worriedly at his right hand, which was beginning to gather chakra. The accumulated chakra crackled and enveloped the guy's entire arm in blue bolts of lightning.

"They were very unlucky that it was not the Fourth who found out about this, but me. Minato sensei could have spared them, but I won’t", - Kakashi growled in a slow and low voice. - "I'll kill them."

"Kakashi, stop", - Genma took a step forward, standing in the guy’s path completely without any fear. - "You're scaring Naruto."

Lightning flashed and disappeared. Kakashi turned around and met the gaze of frightened eyes. Hatake dropped to one knee in front of the child.

"This is the second time I’ve scared you, I’m sorry", - Kakashi bowed his head guiltily.

"Kashi nii-chan, I didn’t mean to", - sobbed Naruto.

Big blue eyes filled with tears.

"I ran away and now you’re angry with me", - the child said in a broken voice, rubbing his eyes with small fists.

Kakashi's heart sank. He extended his hand and hugged the boy tightly.

"Naruto, I'm not angry with you", - he whispered, feeling hot tears on his shoulder. - "Listen to me carefully, Naruto Namikaze, I will never be angry with you. You will never disappoint me. And you should never be afraid of me. I will always be by your side to lend you a hand or lend my shoulder. I will always be behind you, protecting you and guiding you. You should never worry about this."

The boy's small arms hugged his neck tighter. Kakashi could feel the child's heart beating fast in his chest.

"Do you promise?" - the boy asked in a quiet voice.

"Promise", - Kakashi vowed, putting all his love and devotion into one word.

***

"I knew I would find you here", - Kakashi heard Guy’s voice, and then felt Might sit down next to him. - "You weren’t near the gate and I didn’t find you in the apartment. You usually meet me after missions. Something happened?"

Kakashi could feel his excitement. Guy knew him too well, he could read all of Kakashi's hidden feelings just by looking at him. Hatake felt Guy's hot hand gently squeeze his palm.

"It’s interesting how much has changed in the village in the three months that I was gone", - Guy decided not to put pressure on Kakashi and decided to continue the conversation, giving Hatake time to find the right words. - "Did Naruto acquire some new techniques? I can't wait to meet him tomorrow and show him some new moves."

Kakashi snorted quietly. Guy loved Naruto very much and if it were his will, he would spend every free minute with the child. Kakashi liked to watch them train while sitting under the shade of a tree with a book in his hands. Guy and Naruto were very similar to each other in Kakashi's eyes. Both had immense energy and literally glowed from within, like two bright suns. And usually, when Guy went on long missions, Naruto's company brightened up the days of waiting for Kakashi. But not at this time.

"I’ve been having nightmares a lot lately", - Kakashi said in a hoarse voice.

Guy tensed.

"Every night I dreamed that I was losing everyone I cared about. Father, Duy-san, Obito, Rin, Minato sensei, Kushina-san, Jiraiya ji-san… They all died right in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to save them. I just watched helplessly as they left."

Guy silently listened to Kakashi's monologue. Hatake could feel how carefully and tenderly Guy squeezed his hand.

"And every night I woke up with a scream in my throat", - Kakashi sighed heavily and turned to face the guy. - "But, you know, there was something that helped me break out of these nightmares and come to my senses."

Guy waited with bated breath to hear the continuation of the story.

"You", - Kakashi finally said.

Guy's gaze warmed. The tense shoulders relaxed and the corners of the lips curled into a soft smile.

"Thinking about you brought me to my senses", - Kakashi continued. - "You know, my brain never formed nightmares about you. Because I know better than anyone that I simply won’t be able to stand it if I see something happen to you. I can and I was able to survive nightmares about all the people close to me, but I know very well that if something happens to you, I will break."

Kakashi pulled Guy's arm, forcing him to move closer. And then put his head on his shoulder.

"You are my anchor, Guy. Always have been. As a child, you always brought me down to earth when I acted like an arrogant kid. In my youth, when I was drowning in the blood of my enemies, you pulled me to the surface, not allowing me to choke. You became my support and my strength."

Guy gently ran his hand through the Hatake's hair.

"I often think about the future when I look at Naruto", - Kakashi admitted. - "This child was born in such a cruel world, but I want to change this world so that he does not have to experience the horrors that you and I once went through. I want his whole life to be filled only with happiness, joy and love. Sometimes I worry that he is too energetic and that it might put other people off. But, you know, this child is special. There is something in him that, on the contrary, attracts other people to him, makes them follow him. Very soon he will go to the Academy. Because of his parents' status, I was afraid that the other kids might shun him, but he manages to befriend every kid he meets. He has already made friends with Itachi's younger brother, the Kazekage's son and the children of Ino-Shika-Cho."

Guy smiled. Kakashi's voice changed when he spoke about his little brother. Guy could feel Kakashi's boundless love for Naruto.

"These are peaceful times, but sometimes this calm scares me."

"I understand what you mean", - Guy nodded.

"It’s like everything can collapse in an instant. It’s like this whole world is an illusion."

"That’s not true, Kakashi", - Guy objected softly.

"I want to believe", - Hatake sighed tiredly and closed his eyes.

He felt like he was falling asleep. And he knew that next to Guy, all the nightmares would finally recede.

"I missed you", - Kakashi said. - "Three months is too long. I was afraid that you wouldn't come back."

"I will always come back to you", - Guy gently hugged him by the shoulders. - "In this world and in all others. In this life and in all others. In every reality and in every universe, I will always return to you. Only to you."

Kakashi smiled.

"Sounds like the most serious promise", - he teased the guy.

"This is my self rule", - Guy lifted Kakashi’s face and softly kissed his forehead.

"Maa", - Kakashi pulled off his mask and covered his lips with his own, feeling Guy’s happy smile. - "I love you too".

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

[beardedmrbean]

The Taliban morality police in Afghanistan have detained men and their barbers over hairstyles and others for missing prayers at mosques during the holy month of Ramadan, a U.N. report said Thursday, six months after laws regulating people’s conduct came into effect.

The Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws last August covering many aspects everyday life in Afghanistan, including public transport, music, shaving and celebrations. Most notably, the ministry issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.

That same month, a top U.N. official warned the laws provided a “distressing vision” for the country’s future by adding to existing employment, education, and dress code restrictions on women and girls. Taliban officials have rejected U.N. concerns about the morality laws.

Thursday’s report, from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, said in the first 6 months of the laws’ implementation, over half of detentions made under it concerned “either men not having the compliant beard length or hairstyle, or barbers providing non-compliant beard trimming or haircuts.”

The report said that the morality police regularly detained people arbitrarily "without due process and legal protections.”

During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, men’s attendance at mandated congregational prayers was closely monitored, leading at times to arbitrary detention of those who didn't show up, the report added.

The U.N. mission said that both sexes were negatively affected, particularly people with small businesses such as private education centers, barbers and hairdressers, tailors, wedding caterers and restaurants, leading to a reduction or total loss of income and employment opportunities.

The direct and indirect socio-economic effects of the laws’ implementation were likely to compound Afghanistan’s dire economic situation, it said. A World Bank study has assessed that authorities’ ban on women from education and work could cost the country over $1.4 billion per year.

But the Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has emphasized the primacy of Islamic law and the role of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in reforming Afghan society and its people.

In a message issued ahead of the religious Eid Al-Fitr festival that marks the end of Ramadan, Akhundzada said it was necessary “to establish a society free from corruption and trials, and to prevent future generations from becoming victims of misguided beliefs, harmful practices and bad morals.”

More than 3,300 mostly male inspectors are tasked with informing people about the law and enforcing it, according to the report.

The ministry has resolved thousands of people's complaints and defended the rights of Afghan women, according to its spokesman Saif ur Rahman Khyber.

This was in addition to “implementing divine decrees in the fields of promoting virtue, preventing vice, establishing affirmations, preventing bad deeds, and eliminating bad customs.”

The ministry was committed to all Islamic and human rights and had proven this in practice, he said Thursday, rejecting attempts to “sabotage or spread rumors” about its activities.

[kdominguezreflections]

Sources: 

Evans Cuellar, A., McReynolds, L. S., & Wasserman, G. A. (2006). A Cure for Crime: Can Mental Health Treatment Diversion Reduce Crime Among Youth? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 25(1), 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20162

Marcus, N., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2022). Re‐Examining Mental Health Crisis Intervention: A Rapid Review Comparing Outcomes Across Police, Co‐Responder and Non‐Police Models. Health &               Social Care in the Community, 30(5), 1665–1679. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13731 

Yung, A. R. (2016). Youth Services: the Need to Integrate Mental Health, Physical Health and Social Care: Commentary on Malla et al.: From Early Intervention in Psychosis to Youth Mental Health Reform: a Review of the Evolution and Transformation of Mental Health Services for Young People. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51(3), 327–329. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1195-6