#Amnesty Chicago

[contemplatingoutlander]

This is such an important article, the above link is a gift 🎁 link so that anyone can read the entire article, even if they don't subscribe to The New York Times. Here are some highlights:

Two prominent conservative law professors have concluded that Donald J. Trump is ineligible to be president under a provision of the Constitution that bars people who have engaged in an insurrection from holding government office. The professors are active members of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, and proponents of originalism, the method of interpretation that seeks to determine the Constitution’s original meaning. The professors — William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St. Thomas — studied the question for more than a year and detailed their findings in a long article to be published next year in The University of Pennsylvania Law Review. [...] He summarized the article’s conclusion: “Donald Trump cannot be president — cannot run for president, cannot become president, cannot hold office — unless two-thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty for his conduct on Jan. 6.” [...] The provision in question is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Adopted after the Civil War, it bars those who had taken an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” from holding office if they then “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” [...] The article concluded that essentially all of that evidence pointed in the same direction: “toward a broad understanding of what constitutes insurrection and rebellion and a remarkably, almost extraordinarily, broad understanding of what types of conduct constitute engaging in, assisting, or giving aid or comfort to such movements.” It added, “The bottom line is that Donald Trump both ‘engaged in’ ‘insurrection or rebellion’ and gave ‘aid or comfort’ to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.” [...] The provision’s language is automatic, the article said, establishing a qualification for holding office no different in principle from the Constitution’s requirement that only people who are at least 35 years old are eligible to be president. “Section 3’s disqualification rule may and must be followed — applied, honored, obeyed, enforced, carried out — by anyone whose job it is to figure out whether someone is legally qualified to office,” the authors wrote. That includes election administrators, the article said. Professor Calabresi said those administrators must act. “Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot, and each of the 50 state secretaries of state has an obligation to print ballots without his name on them,” he said, adding that they may be sued for refusing to do so. [color/emphasis added]

Let's hope that election administrators across the US read this article and begin to set in motion the mechanism to prevent Donald Trump from appearing on ballots across the U.S., in case he does get the GOP nomination.

[opencommunion]

please go to a protest for Land Day tomorrow (March 30th) if you can

AUSTRALIA – Hobart / Nipaluna. 1PM Every Saturday @ Davey St. (Grand Chancellor).

CANADA – Antigonish, NS. 1PM Every Saturday @ Antigonish Town Hall. Antigonish 4 Gaza.

CANADA – Montreal. 2PM Land Day Tatreez Workshop @ Refugee Center. PYM Montreal.

CANADA – Ottawa. 2PM Land Day @ Human Rights Monument.

CANADA – Toronto. 2PM Land Day @ Yonge & Dundas. PYM Toronto.

ENGLAND – Halifax. 1PM Every Saturday @ Wilkos on Southgate.

ENGLAND – Hebden Bridge. 3PM Every Saturday @ Holme Street. 4PM @ St George’s Square. West Yorkshire for Palestine.

ENGLAND – London. 11AM @ 7 Tavistock Square. PYM Britain.

ENGLAND – London. 12PM @ Central London. STW UK.

NETHERLANDS – Amsterdam. 7PM Every Night @ Dam Square.

PORTUGAL – Porto. 10PM Every Night Vigil @ Camara Municipal.

SCOTLAND – Orkney. 1PM Every Saturday @ St Magnus Cathedral Steps. Amnesty Orkney.

AZ – Phoenix. 1MP Land Day @ Civic Space Park. PSL Phoenix AZ.

CA – Los Angeles. 1PM Land Day March @ LA City Hall. PYM LA/OC/IE.

CA – Petaluma. 12:30PM Every Saturday @ Petaluma & E Washington. Occupy Pelatuma.

CA – Ventura. 12:30PM @ 181 E Santa Clara St. ANSWER Coalition.

CO – Fort Collins. 3PM Every Saturday @ Old Town Square. NOCO Liberation Coalition.

DC – Washington DC. 4PM @ DuPont Circle. ANSWER Coalition.

FL – Gainesville. 11AM @ Depot Park. ANSWER Coalition.

FL – Orlando. City Hall. TBA. ANSWER Coalition.

FL – Pensacola. PM @ Main & Reus (Blue Wahoos). PSL CGC. 

GA – Atlanta. 2PM @ Consulate of Israel. PYM.

ID – Pocatello. 12PM Every Saturday @ Bannock County Courthouse. Pocatello for Palestine.

IL – Chicago. 1PM @ TBA. USPCN + Chicago SJP.

LA – New Orleans. 3:30PM @ 701 N Rampart St.

MA – Springfield. 2PM @ 36 Court St. ANSWER Coalition.

ME – Portland. 1PM @ Monument Square. PSL Maine.

MI – Detroit. 1:30PM @ Beacon Park. USPCN.

MI – Detroit. 10AM Land Day @ Rouge Park. PYM.

MN – Minneapolis. 2PM @ 2707 West Lake St. ANSWER Coalition.

MT – Kalispell. 12PM Every Saturday @ Main & Center. MT 4 Palestine.

NC – Asheville. 4PM @ 1 N Pack Square. ANSWER Coalition.

NC – Charlotte. 4PM @ Wilmore Centennial Park. CLT 4 Palestine + PSL Carolinas.

NC – Raleigh. 3PM Land Day @ Moore Square. PSL Carolinas.

NC, Charlotte. 4PM @ Wilmore Centennial Park. Land Day. CLT 4 Pali + PSL Carolinas.

NM – Albuquerque. 4PM @ UNM Book Store. ANSWER Coalition.

NY – New York. 12PM @ City Hall Park. Within Our Lifetime.

NY – New York. 12PM Vigil Every Saturday @ 5th & 44th in Brooklyn. Sunset Park Elders.

NY – New York. 5PM @ Times Square. PYM.

NY – Rochester. 1:30PM @ MLK Park. End Apartheid ROC + SJP UR.

OH – Cincinnati. 3PM @ 801 Plum St. ANSWER Coalition.

OH – Cleveland. 2PM Land Day @ Edgewater Upper Pavillion. USCPN.

OH – Columbus. 4PM @ 120 W Goodale St. ANSWER Coalition.

OH – Dayton. 5PM @ 2680 Ridge Ave. ANSWER Coalition.

OH – Wooster. 11AM @ 538 N Market St. ANSWER Coalition.

OR – Bend. 12PM Saturdays @ Peace Corner. Central Oregon 4 Socialism.

OR – Portland. 12PM @ Desert Island Studios. Letters for Palestine PDX.

PA – Philadelphia. 5PM @ 7th & Walnut. ANSWER Coalition.

PA – Pittsburgh. 3:30PM @ 4100 Forbes Ave. ANSWER Coalition.

RI – Providence. 5PM @ Prospect Terr. ANSWER Coalition.

TX – Houston. 1PM @ Waterwall Park. PYM Houston.

TX – San Antonio. 12PM @ 301 E Travis ST. ANSWER Coalition.

VT – Burlington. 1PM @ City Hall. ANSWER Coalition.

WA – Seattle. 2PM Land Day @ Lake Union Park. PYM.

WI – Milwaukee. 1:30PM @ Sijan Park. PSL Milwaukee.

WI – Viroqua. 11AM Vigil Every Saturday @ Main & Decker. Driftless Solidarity / Wolves PSC.

WV – Martinsburg. 12PM Land Day @ Martinsburg Town Square. PSL WV.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't make this list and it's not comprehensive. If you don't see a protest near you, look up what your local orgs are doing, and if you still can't find anything, take autonomous action

[utilitycaster]

What ACOC fanon are people getting so upset over?

Come traveler. Let me tell you a tale. For I, too, was unaware of it until they went absolutely bugfuck all over Twitter. But if you don't want the whole long-winded epic: people shipped Belizabeth Brassica and Saint Citrina and while there has been no evidence indicating this will or not be confirmed or even mentioned they FREAKED OUT about how Matt would OBVIOUSLY destroy the "widespread" fanon (it is not widespread), specifically implying he'd do so in a bigoted way. Then some D20 guests noticed because the people saying this are not like, unknown fanartists (in fact one implied they had been asked to create art for the season but forgot to check their DMs) and were like "this is entitled and stupid and needlessly cruel to Matt, who is like, a guy we personally know and generally like." The people then, rather than saying "my B" and taking this to the DMs like a normal person who wants to talk shit, repeatedly doubled down. As of a few hours ago they were accusing Jasmine Bhullar of subtweeting them when she was in fact merely promoting an entirely unrelated show, it's sparked both a heartfelt discussion about how Matt's discussion of body dysmorphia has helped people and a conversation about how there's toxicity in all fandoms but the D20 community refuses to even acknowledge it; and also I think they've burned their chances of ever doing fan art for an actual play of any size in LA, Chicago, New York, London, or the centroid that represents an equidistant point from all the McElroys which is, I believe, hilariously for Amnesty fans, in the Monongahela National Forest.

Anyway POV we're around a campfire, I'm drinking something lightly alcoholic, and you wish to hear of The Drama At Length:

Do you remember Belizabeth Brassica, aka Broccoli Pope loosely based in appearance on Queen Elizabeth I (technically renaissance rather than high medieval but like...people constantly mix those up in D&D so it's fine)?

Great. Now do you remember the Rocks Sisters? Not the twins played by Siobhan and Emily; Amethar's four older sisters who died in the Ravening War, before the story started: Rococoa, Lazuli, Citrina, and Sapphria. Rococoa was a general; Lazuli an archmage (and Caramelinda's wife before she died; Caramelinda then married Amethar because while Lazuli had been a love match, this was a beneficial marriage for political purposes); Citrina a devotee of The Bulb; and Sapphria a spy and diplomat. They get talked about a lot, for sure, but their presence in the story is to be absent and to haunt the narrative.

Anyway the fanon is that Citrina and Belizabeth were in a relationship. In canon, I believe all we know is that both were devotees of the bulb; that Citrina held positions that might be considered heretical by some (she was a passionate believer in love matches and supported Amethar's marriage to a commoner in the Dairy Isles) and that Belizabeth ordered that she be killed.

Here's where this gets fun. So ACOC aired pretty much exactly three years ago, and while I think it's considered by many to be a high point in D20's oeuvre, a lot of fans have, you know, kept up with D20 on the whole and not dwelt on it in depth. But a small group of people have been consistently focused on this ship between an NPC who is vitally important to the narrative but shows up in fewer than a third of the total episodes; and a character dead before the story ever started. Which, I need to stress, is fine; the joy of headcanons is playing in the empty spaces.

Flash forward to 2023: a creative director who was generally opposed to revisiting past campaign settings and preferred standalone has just amicably parted ways. Neverafter has gotten mixed reviews (I have to see the last 8 episodes; this is anecdotal but some of the editing choices, plus the both dense yet meandering plot, brought the momentum of a truly fantastic TPK and resolution early on to a shuddering halt), and really nothing but A Court of Fey and Flowers has truly stuck for some time. The fandom has been clamoring for Fantasy High Junior Year for quite some time to no avail. The switch to 10-episode sidequests from 6 episode sidequests has met lukewarm reception. In short: D20 could use something flashy to revitalize their next sidequest. Enter: Matt Mercer as DM.

Now, a lot of D20 fans who are not part of the (significant) overlap with CR fans hate Matt Mercer. This is in part because a lot of people who got Big Mad about ships in Campaign 2 went to D20 and proceeded to badmouth Critical Role, a show they happily watched and made art for until roughly episode 107-ish of Campaign 2, proclaiming it homophobic (wrong two women kissed); racist (one of the women who kissed is a dark-skinned woman played by a white woman, which would have still been true if she kissed the other woman but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯); and probably problematic in other ways. To be clear I am not saying Critical Role is above criticism, and it has made its missteps, but like, the fact that these complaints showed up conveniently only when a ship didn't happen and mostly from like, white teenagers who proceeded to simultaneously call the cast transphobic and deliberately get their names wrong means this is not the criticism that is valid and worth considering, as is the fact that technically Matt had nothing to do with the ship not happening, but they've realized being an asshole to Marisha about her character's romantic choices will rightfully get you flayed alive. Also some D20 fans just hate Critical Role in the way that if you live in Boston you're supposed to hate New York and vice versa but if you say "why? what if I just want the baseball boys to have a good time together?" no one can answer.

Anyway here's a diagram to illustrate the group I'm talking about; they're the green dot:

So: a couple of them decided a smart thing to do on Twitter in front of God and everybody was to say that they were worried Matt would contradict this "widely established" fanlore because he is not plugged into the ACOC fandom. They then proceeded to specifically (jokingly, but like, in a shitty way, still where everyone could see it) say that Matt would probably introduce Belizabeth as being married to her husband because she is 100% straight.

Now there's a bunch of problems here, and people pointed them out. Namely:

This is a weird thing to assume Matt would do, ie, automatically make an arbitrary NPC definitely straight, even if you're joking about it; like, he has a pretty decent track record for making NPCs of varying genders and sexualities, especially by C2 and C3.

This is not even widely established fanlore; this is a tiny group of fans of ACOC. See below for more on that.

Even if it were widely established fanlore, it's unlikely Brennan would know either.

Even if it were widely established fanlore and Matt or Brennan were aware of it, they are under no obligation to adhere to fanlore, because it's fanlore, not the established canon of A Crown of Candy. This does not make fanlore bad! It just means that creators are allowed to ignore it in the same way that fan creators are allowed to ignore canon; this is a two-way street.

Therefore, because this is fanlore, even if Matt did say "here is Belizabeth and her husband, and she has only ever been involved with men" this would not be homophobic because the character's sexuality has never been established and straight is one of the possible sexualities she could have. Obviously if he went super hard on her straightness that could get weird but that's a fucking bonkers stretch.

When people pointed it out, this group and a few other people who just fucking hate Matt kept dismissing them as CR fans. Then it caught the attention of various D20 guest cast members or people in the broader TTRPG scene, who have pointed out that like...the actual play and TTRPG industry is a place where basically everyone in a particular region knows everyone else and they are all good friends and this is shitty. The D20 fans mad that Matt is DM-ing The Ravening War kept doubling down and started making outright ad-hominem attacks on Matt (notably his appearance and dress which is like, shitty and irrelevant to this fanon thing anyway even before you consider the body dysmorphia) and whining that because they've made some charity fanzines, a thing people have been doing since the dawn of Star Trek TOS, they deserve...something. People rightfully called them out as 1. entitled brats and 2. needlessly cruel. They keep whining that CR fans are dogpiling them when in fact like, the entire TTRPG community including, as far as I can tell, the D20 community who overlaps with CR fandom and even the D20 community that does not but is neutral on CR, is like "you suck, you started it, this fandom is not exempted from typical fandom toxicity, and you will look back on this in 5 years and vomit from embarrassment."

Anyway this is all kind of tiresome, but also pretty funny because literally I'm expecting a bunch of fanartists who are immensely high on their own farts to be 100% blacklisted from ever receiving a commission from like, any Actual Play of note and also a lot of fans; there's an outpouring of support for Matt that far outstrips what there would have been without a handful of idiots starting shit; and also the season is fully filmed anyway so if this ship was confirmed noncanon, it happened a few months ago anyway and there's nothing anyone can do.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, pretty much all these losers are still 100% going to watch The Ravening War anyway so like, this has all amounted to a net positive for everyone but them.

[alittledizzy]

I don’t use my tumblr publicly, hence the anon, but I saw your fic amnesty post and felt like it was posted just for me! I posted a Dan and Phil fic a couple of weeks ago, and I kept having this quiet little hope that maybe you’d venture back to the d&p tag on ao3 and read it, just bc it’d be such an honor. You have always been one of my favorite voices in the d&p fandom. We interacted a bit when I used to be active on the forums, I adore your commentary, and I am such a fan of your fic writing. The characterization is consistently exquisite, and you always capture this perfect balance of grounded realism, lack of pretension, and the full miraculous magnitude of their connection through tiny moments.

ANYWAY, I posted a fic for the first time in over ten years. It starts with a fair bit of inner monologuing and a bit of a tropey device, but I promise it picks up. I’m very proud of it, and I sincerely hope you enjoy it. Since you can’t add links to anon asks, I must resort to this -

As He Goes, So I Go by cloej88

Rating: E

Word count: 25,272

Link that isn’t an actual link: archiveofourown . org/ series /4104049

Summary: It’s November of 2015, and Dan and Phil have just finished their UK leg of The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire. They’ve sworn off the romantic side of their relationship in order to protect the rest of this life they’ve built. However, with all of the close proximity of touring, their connection feels headier and more charged than ever. As soon as the UK tour ends, they fly to the US for a quick book-signing trip, but they become snowed in by a blizzard in Chicago. In the solitude of their shared hotel room, can they fumble their way back to one another?

Featuring: Pining, lots of fluff, the TATINOF UK afterparty in all its glory, an arcade bar in snowy Chicago, a NYTimes How to Fall in Love quiz, lots of introspective musing about how much these idiots adore one another, and some well-earned smut.

holy shit thank you for sending me this because i am OBSESSED with this fic now

[strictlyfavorites]

Quit trashing Obama's accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. Here is a list of his impressive accomplishments:

1. First President to be photographed smoking a joint.

2. First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.

3. First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.

4. First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

5. First President to violate the War Powers Act.

6. First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

7. First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.

8. First President to spend a trillion dollars on "shovel-ready" jobs when there was no such thing as "shovel-ready" jobs.

9. First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.

10. First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.

11. First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S., including those with criminal convictions.

12. First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.

13. First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.

14. First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.

15. First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.

16. First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

17. First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

18. First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.

19. First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.

20. First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).

21. First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.

22. First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).

23. First President to fire an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

24. First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

25. First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.

26. First President to golf more than 150 separate times in his five years in office.

27. First President to hide his birth, medical, educational and travel records.

28. First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

29. First President to go on multiple "global apology tours" and concurrent "insult our friends" tours.

30. First President to go on over 17 lavish vacations, in addition to date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayers.

31. First President to have personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

32. First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.

33. First President to fly in a personal trainer from Chicago at least once a week at taxpayer expense.

34. First President to repeat the Quran and tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

35. First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states (Mexico vs Arizona).

36. First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they "volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences."

37. Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.

[raggedyanndy]

EDIT: apparently the first spirit breakers wasn't a live show. oops.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Wilfred Reilly

Published: Nov 10, 2023

When your enemies tell you their goals, believe them.

Over the past three weeks, a lot of crazy sh** has been said about the Jews. Following the October 7 onset of hostilities between the nation of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas (sometimes billed as the “nation of Palestine”), a group of tens of thousands of recent migrants to Australia, university students, and others gathered in scenic downtown Sydney and quite literally chanted “Gas the Jews!” At 30–40 other large rallies, including this one in my hometown of Chicago, the cris de coeur were the just slightly less radical “From the river to the sea!” — a call for the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel — and “What is the solution? Intifada! Revolution!”

As has been documented to death by now, some 34 prominent student organizations (bizarrely including Amnesty International) at America’s third-best university, Harvard, signed on to a petition that assigned the “apartheid” state of Israel 100 percent of the blame for the current war — and indeed for the Hamas atrocities that began it. At another college, New York City’s Cooper Union, a group of Jewish students was apparently trapped inside a small campus library for hours by a braying pro-Palestinian mob. And so on.

In response to such open and gleeful hatred, more than a few conventional liberals — from comedienne Amy Schumer to the admittedly more heterodox Bill Maher — seem to have had their eyes fully opened as to who their keffiyeh-wearing “allies” truly are . . . at least when it comes specifically to Jewish people. But there is a deeper point, rarely made outside of the hard right, that lurks just beyond the mainstream’s discovery of rampant hard-left antisemitism: The same campus radicals and general hipster fauna quite regularly say worse things about a whole range of other groups than they do about Jews.

Whites — regular ol’ Caucasian Americans — represent probably the largest and most obvious such target group. As right-leaning but quite popular figures, such as the various Daily Wire personalities, are beginning to note, open hatred of white people has become something of a pillar of modern leftism. A Google search for the phrase “the problem is white men” turns up an astonishing 2,140,000,000 mostly on-point (at least as per the first 20 pages) results — including such gems as the former CNN feature piece titled “There’s Nothing More Frightening in America Today Than an Angry White Man.”

Quite prominent figures regularly say completely insane things about the suntan-challenged. Tenured Rutgers University academic “Professor Crunk” — still flatteringly described on the place’s website as an “unapologetic Black feminist” focused on “accelerating the pace of change” — recently described all Caucasians as villainous monsters on national television, and argued frankly for “taking the motherf***ers out.”

Around the same time, massively popular Wild ’N Out TV host Nick Cannon received considerable heat for some antisemitic comments he made on the air . . . but essentially none for saying that white people are “savages” and “a little less” than black people and other so-called people of color. Far further toward the true fringe, of course, the recently released written manifesto of Nashville’s Covenant Christian school shooter focused largely on hate for the white national majority. The shooter at one point actually noted “white privilege” as a motivating factor behind her murder spree.

Speaking as a conservative black man, I will note that whites hardly stand alone as a target group for modern leftist rhetoric. A few high-school scuffles aside, almost literally the only people ever to call me a “n*****” or a “coon” have been left-bloc activists — mostly white — accusing me of somehow betraying my tribe. More prominent black conservatives, such as Larry Elder, have faced Chappelle’s Show–level accusations of being “black white supremacists” and “black faces of white supremacy.” A short list of other groups that fairly regularly experience get-on-the-train-style rhetoric might include the rich (“Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist”), gender-critical women (“Punch/Kill TERFS!”), practicing traditional Christians, and in some real sense all non-Indigenous Westerners (“Decolonize NOW!”).

I recommend a radical approach to all of this facially vile speech: Sane, armed conservatives should believe what the speakers are saying, and take it seriously. At present, pervasive upper-middle-class postmodernism has significantly influenced even the Western Right, to such an extent that we regularly see serious editorialists and TV men treating things like a full soccer stadium chanting “Kill the Boer . . . kill the white farmer . . . bang bang!!!” as some sort of amusing metaphor — perhaps referencing South Africa’s ongoing spate of lawsuits over land rights.

Against this tortured reading, I — not being an idiot — suggest an alternative explanation: When intelligent adult humans say that they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them, I propose that they mean they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them. When citizens say that all American whites are privileged lairds who should lose most of the positions they currently hold, or that minorities can never be effectively racist (unless they’re conservative), or that “the only cure for past discrimination is present discrimination,” or that we need a federal Department of Antiracism with the ability to regulate every business in the U.S., or that borrowing ideas from other cultures should be socially toxic or even illegal, or that “colonizers” should be killed . . . they mean it.

So, what to do about all of this, once it is taken seriously? A simple answer would seem to be: React the way that any sane person would to an opponent saying that they hate or wish to kill him. In the wake of the pro-Hamas statements emanating not merely from Harvard but also quite a few other universities following the atrocities of October 7, many donors closed their wallets for good or emphatically threatened to — and this makes hard sense as a form of punishment. At least a dozen major firms are publicly refusing to hire students from any of the Harvard 34, and — whether you approve of this development or not — we seem to be moving toward a sort of “mutually assured destruction” re: cancel culture, which should eventually result in true free speech for all or a return to some damned manners.

All of this (and quite a bit more that is yet to come) is good, proper, and sorely overdue. A third or so of the country has been telling us exactly who they are for the past 50 years. It is long past time that we started listening to them — and responding appropriately.

==

When intelligent adult humans say that they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them, I propose that they mean they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them.

I've been saying for years: believe them when they tell you what they're up to.

There's a tendency for well-meaning people of good conscience to reinterpret the claims and demands of radical activists through their own liberal values.

Someone who agrees that racist and/or violent police officers should be identified and fired is susceptible to taking the demand for "defund the police," and moderating that into, well, they just mean put on more social workers, or maybe they could shoot them in the leg, or why are police spending so much time in predominantly black neighborhoods, all of which are stupid, cost innocent lives, and aren't what affected communities even want. Even though the activist means what they mean and screams it unapologetically.

This is comparable to religious moderates who temper their own scripture. Jesus doesn't really mean to kill your disobedient children, it's... just a metaphor? Jihad isn't really a call to war, it's just... a deep personal struggle?

This is understandable, because reasonable people don't want to be associated with insane ideas. But it doesn't change the scripture or what the fanatics want. The activists are still going to do what they're going to do, and you're going to look foolish or dishonest for saying otherwise.

It's far better to disassociate yourself from the tribalism entirely and instead say, "this is what I mean." You might get some flack from your "tribe" for not supporting them or falling into lockstep, but you'll at least be true to yourself. And maybe learn whether the tribalism was a good idea at all.

Of course, this is more difficult with religion, since what you mean is largely irrelevant to what your god wants and betrays the human-made nature of the religion and the god. That won't stop we non-believers from noticing and pointing it out, though.

Believe them when they tell you what they're up to. And then decide if you want to be a part of that.

[tieflingkisser]

What's next for pro-Palestinian US student protests this summer?

In-depth: As summer approaches, it might seem that student protests for Palestine are done for the year. Instead, many are organising for further mobilisation.

Student-led demonstrations are continuing off-campus at public spaces, including in front of the White House, as well as at events at campuses across the country, with the expectation that September will bring more coordinated mobilisation, particularly in a contentious presidential election year if the war in Gaza hasn't ended by then. The first few days of June have already seen organised pro-Palestinian protests with a new encampment at Columbia during an alumni reunion, and on the other side of the country at Stanford, student protesters stormed the university president's building, resulting in multiple arrests. "I think we're continuing with the same kind of pressure," Ridaa Khan, a rising fourth-year communications student at Wayne State University in Detroit, tells The New Arab. "The interest and popularity aren't lost, just because of repression. That mobilises students even more." As for what she expects in the coming months, she says, "Over time, we're getting smarter. We're learning more about our institutions and how to get our demands met".

Continued demands for university divestment

One of the main demands of student protesters is for universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel, and with weapons manufacturers that do business in the country. They also want their universities to be more transparent about their investments and to give amnesty to students who have been punished for protesting, as well as to allow for peaceful student gatherings. A key goal for these protests, possibly superseding the main demands, which often gets lost in the news coverage of police crackdowns and congressional hearings, is to raise awareness and keep the focus on Gaza.

[...]

Heavy-handed crackdowns fuel further demonstrations

This was followed months later by heavy-handed crackdowns at Columbia and other universities, only serving to ignite further protests. Hundreds of students across the country have been arrested and suspended, and many are currently going through the court system. In the rare cases where the university administration has negotiated with the student protesters to reach an agreement over their demands, such as at Northwestern near Chicago, donors have put pressure on the presidents to resign.

[bostonwalks]

"...Beware! The pro-Hamas, anti-American forces are pulling off a great con. Empowered by how much Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fear them in Michigan, encouraged by sniveling academics who gave them amnesty for trashing campuses, they think they’ve got momentum. They claim to represent the American people and the Democratic Party: They don’t! Most Americans remain pro-Israel and anti-Hamas. Most Americans don’t want to see Chicago burning, with hooligans using American and Israeli flags as fuel for the fire.

Even The New York Times reported that a University of Chicago and GenForward poll “showed that the Gaza war ranked near the bottom of young voters’ concerns, well below immigration, economic growth and income inequality.”

This election will be won – like most – in the Center. It will pivot around swing centrist voters in swing states who want to build America up, not burn it down. To win, Democrats should appeal to them, by defying the masked cowards who hate America, Israel, and the West.

So beyond that pragmatic argument – that victory will come from mobilizing the pro-Israel majority and not pandering to the anti-Israel, anti-American minority – here are the most important principled arguments pro-Israel Democrats should make in Chicago...." https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-815592

[greenjacketwhitehatdocmui]

Hark! Have spoils from my last convention, Fan Expo Chicago! This one is by Chris Ehnot, and is of Lord Havelock Vetinari as a Sith Lord. Does he have a lightsaber? Not at the moment. Does that make him any less dangerous? Not one bit.

I am imagining this after the unfortunate fall of Emperor Palpatine, when Vetinari has taken over...and granted amnesty to the remnants of the Jedi Order.

As always, this has been reduced in size and watermarked to discourage art theft.

--Doc

[bisexualchrissycunningham]

For @hellcheeranniversaryweek's WIP Wednesday: Amnesty where we post about WIPs we may never finish.

Sometime last summer, or maybe fall, I had a Second Chance idea for a fic. Eddie and Chrissy unexpectedly run into each other at a museum in Paris around 3 years after their breakup ('89 or '90), and spend the night together, walking around the city and catching up and trying to deny how in love they both still are (it was only vaguely inspired by Richard Linklater's Before trilogy).

They'd been together throughout '86 and were living in Chicago, while Chrissy did her freshmen year. But Eddie had a chance encounter with someone in the music industry who gave Corroded Coffin a chance at a big break - opening an American tour for a mid-level band maybe, I hadn't decided - and he was going to say no because he was afraid it would end things with Chrissy, but she insisted he had to do it. She would feel far too guilty if he gave up this one chance.

So in the spring of '87 Eddie left town. They made promises about calling and writing, but once they were apart, they both felt too guilty to hold the other back with constant contact. So they fell apart.

Chrissy has a difficult sophomore year. Her eating disorder returned with a vengeance. After the many lighthearted fights she and Eddie had about what pet they should get (she wanted a dog, he wanted a cat) she ends up rescuing a raggedy black cat and names him after some obscure D&D character Eddie loved.

The only light in the darkness was this one class she took - an art class that ended up giving her a path to a happier future.

Corroded Coffin had a hit first record, and toured a couple times throughout the US and Europe. Their record label was pushing for an even bigger commercial success the second time around. But Eddie was unhappy with how his life ended up - fame isn't what he thought it would be.

Chrissy found her passion (art) and has just spent a fulfilling semester abroad in Paris surrounded by friends she loves who adore her, but still has this hole in her heart that Eddie left behind.

It would have had a happy ending, though not right away. This 2 teensy excerpts are all I have written besides a list of little details I knew I wanted to include:

Eddie has gotten everything he dreamed of back in high school and he’s never been so fucking miserable.

They’re in Paris this week–the record label wants them to settle on a recording studio after months of back and forth, and Eddie is tired of it all. It doesn’t even matter. The producers are just going to keep pushing back, keep asking for the single. The single that would top the success of their first record.

The thing is, they already have all the songs they want to record. At least, the songs he and Jeff want to record.

*

That fall in Chicago was a dream, or at least that’s how Eddie remembers it. The hard parts–the fear that Chrissy would get bored of him or meet a guy in her classes that could give her a much better life–he hardly remembers any of that anymore.

He only remembers her. Afternoons in her dorm room, her studying while he wrote songs and planned campaigns. The nights she was able to stay at his shitty place he rented with Jeff and the Sunday mornings spent naked in bed making love and playing Billy Joel songs for her on his acoustic guitar.

He still finds himself playing those songs mindlessly. Grant and Gareth poke fun at him whenever they catch him, but Jeff only ever gives him these sad looks that make Eddie wanna punch something.

[dnickels]

The Art Institute of Chicago stated that despite efforts to provide protesters with an alternate location, and despite offering those who are their students amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges things escalated when "...protesters surrounded and shoved a security officer and stole their keys to the museum, blocked emergency exits and barricaded gates."

These kids are so cool

[catdotjpeg]

The Divestment Coalition Encampment at DePaul University, a private Catholic school in Chicago, IL, gave an update today, saying that while they were able to meet with an engagement team from the university, their demands were not met and they will continue holding down the encampment:

Yesterday, members of the DePaul Divestment Coalition were called into a meeting with the engagement team established by the university.  If there is one point you take away from this message, let it be that we are incredibly disappointed in how the email sent by the Office of the University President last night (subject line: “Engagement team meeting”) misrepresented the meeting and the intentionality of the administration. 

[...]

…the Engagement Team of the University did not include any individuals at the University that hold any decision-making authority on our boldest demands: disclosement and divestment (e.g. the Chief Financial Officer, members of the Board of Trustees Finance Committee, or President Manuel).  …as we stressed in the meeting, those who were present from the administration could have very well addressed other demands today— including calling out the scholasticide and genocide, joining Chicago in calling for a ceasefire, assuring amnesty for participants, and having the University publicly stand against the [doxing] of our community members… 

[...]

We reject the co-optation and normalization of our encampment. We reject the two-faced attempts of some members of the Engagement Team sharing how “proud” and “impressed” they are by the encampment and in the same breath not caring about why we are even here. We will only correspond with those on the Engagement Team once we receive substantive, written feedback on every single one of our demands from the individuals who actually have the authority to implement these demands. 

[...]

Do not allow yourself to be distracted by the narratives that the university is trying to impose upon our encampment and the movement writ large. We know why we are here, we know that we will not engage until we hear responses to our demands, and we know we will not leave until DePaul divests.

The demands are as follows:

1. Acknowledge the ongoing genocide and scholasticide in Gaza. 2. Disclose investments, budgets, and holdings of the university with the greater DePaul community. 3. Divest from companies that advance Palestinian suffering and profit off the occupation.  4. Join the city of Chicago in calling for a ceasefire.  5. Eliminate study abroad trips to “israel” / that discriminate and normalize israel’s occupation.  6. Establish an ethical advisory team on investment responsibility that included students, faculty, and staff.  7. No zionists determining where our tuition money is going— [remove] individuals with ties to israel from board of trustees.   8. Creation of an Arab / SWANA student center. 9. Amnesty for student protestors, organizers, and supporting faculty. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TOMORROW (Apr 17) in CHICAGO, then Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

#20yrsago The RIAA's Clean Slate “amnesty” euthanized https://web.archive.org/web/20040517135600/https://blogs.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001435.php

#20yrsago 1995 web-hosting rates https://web.archive.org/web/20040421110701/http://1c4.net/

#15yrsago UK wine-sellers declare that wine has horoscopes, advise wine-drinkers to avoid certain moon-days https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/apr/18/wine-lunar-calendar-tesco-supermarkets

#10yrsago Army comes clean about its recruitment AI, accidentally discloses info about pedophile- and terrorist-catching chatbots that roam the net https://spacenews.com/pepsi-drops-plans-to-use-orbital-billboard/

#5yrsago The Antitrust Case Against Facebook: a turning point in the debate over Big Tech and monopoly https://memex.craphound.com/2019/04/18/the-antitrust-case-against-facebook-a-turning-point-in-the-debate-over-big-tech-and-monopoly/

#5yrsago The sovereign nation of Iceland has finally invalidated the European trademark on “Iceland,” formerly held by a British discount grocery chain https://www.techdirt.com/2019/04/17/end-absurdity-iceland-country-successfully-invalidates-trademark-iceland-foods-grocer/

#5yrsago Dentistry’s evidentiary vacuum allows profiteering butchers to raid our mouths for millions https://memex.craphound.com/2019/04/18/dentistrys-evidentiary-vacuum-allows-profiteering-butchers-to-raid-our-mouths-for-millions/

#5yrsago 1% of England owns half of England https://whoownsengland.org

#5yrsago Effective July 15, British porn consumers will be required entrust their sexual tastes to private companies’ badly secured databases https://www.wired.com/story/porn-block-uk-wired-explains/

#5yrsago We lost the fight for balance in the EU’s Copyright Directive, but here’s what we won https://felixreda.eu/2019/04/not-in-vain/

#5yrsago John Oliver tackles the Sacklers: the litigious, secretive billionaires whose family business engineered the opioid crisis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qCKR6wy94U

#1yrago How tech does regulatory capture https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

AUG 20, 2023

Various constitutional lawyers have been weighing in lately on whether former president Donald Trump and others who participated in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election are disqualified from holding office under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The third section of that amendment, ratified in 1868, reads: 

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

On August 14 an article forthcoming from the University of Pennsylvania Law Review by William Baude of the University of Chicago Law School and Michael S. Paulsen of the University of St. Thomas School of Law became available as a preprint. It argued that the third section of the Fourteenth Amendment is still in effect (countering arguments that it applied only to the Civil War era secessionists), that it is self-executing (meaning the disqualification of certain people is automatic, much as age limits or residency requirements are), and that Trump and others who participated in trying to steal the 2020 presidential election are disqualified from holding office.

This paper was a big deal because while liberal thinkers have been making this argument for a while now, Baude and Paulsen are associated with the legal doctrine of originalism, an approach to the law that insists the Constitution should be understood as those who wrote its different parts understood them. That theory gained traction on the right in the 1980s as a way to push back against what its adherents called “judicial activism,” by which they meant the Supreme Court’s use of the law, especially the Fourteenth Amendment, to expand the rights of minorities and women. One of the key institutions engaged in this pushback was the Federalist Society, and both Baude and Paulson are associated with it. 

Now the two have made a 126-page originalist case that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits Trump from running for president. Their interpretation is undoubtedly correct. But that interpretation has even larger implications than they claim.

Moderate Republicans—not “Radical Republicans,” by the way, which was a slur pinned on the Civil War era party by southern-sympathizing Democrats—wrote the text of the Fourteenth Amendment at a specific time for a specific reason that speaks directly to our own era. 

When John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, Congress was not in session. It had adjourned on the morning of Lincoln’s second inauguration in early March, after beavering away all night to finish up the session’s business, and congressmen had begun their long journeys home where they would stay until the new session began in December. 

Lincoln’s death handed control of the country for more than seven months to his vice president, Andrew Johnson, a former Democrat who wanted to restore the nation to what it had been before the war, minus the institution of slavery that he believed concentrated wealth and power among a small elite. Johnson refused to call Congress back into session while he worked alone to restore the prewar system, dominated by Democrats, as quickly as he could. 

In May, Johnson announced that all former Confederates except for high-ranking political or military officers or anyone worth more than $20,000 (about $400,000 today) would be given amnesty as soon as they took an oath of loyalty to the United States. He pardoned all but about 1,500 of that elite excluded group by December 1865.

Johnson required that southern states change their state constitutions by ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting enslavement except as punishment for a crime, nullifying the ordinances of secession, and repudiating the Confederate war debts. Delegates did so, grudgingly and with some wiggling, and then went on to pass the Black Codes, laws designed to keep Black Americans subservient to their white neighbors. 

Under those new state constitutions and racist legal codes, southern states elected new senators and representatives to Congress. Voters put back into national office the very same men who had driven the rebellion, including its vice president, Alexander Stephens, whom the Georgia legislature reelected to the U.S. Senate. When Congress reconvened in December 1865, Johnson cheerily told them he had reconstructed the country without their help.

It looked as if the country was right back to where it had been in 1860, with legal slavery ended but a racial system that looked much like it already reestablished in the South. And since the 1870 census would count Black Americans as whole people for the first time, southern congressmen would have more power than before. 

But when the southern state delegations elected under Johnson’s plan arrived in Washington, D.C., to be seated, Republicans turned them away. They rejected the idea that after four years, 600,000 casualties, and more than $5 billion, the country should be ruled by men like Stephens, who insisted that American democracy meant that power resided not in the federal government but in the states, where a small, wealthy minority could insulate itself from the majority rule that controlled Congress. 

In state government a minority could control who could vote and the information to which those voters had access, removing concerns that voters would challenge their wealth or power. White southerners embraced the idea of “popular sovereignty” and “states’ rights,” arguing that any attempt of Congress to enforce majority rule was an attack on democracy.

But President LIncoln and the Republicans reestablished the idea of majority rule, using the federal government to enforce the principle of human equality outlined by the Declaration of Independence. 

And that’s where the Fourteenth Amendment came in. When Johnson tried to restore the former Confederates to power after the Civil War, Americans wrote into the Constitution that anyone born or naturalized in the U.S. was a citizen, and then they established that states must treat all citizens equally before the law, thus taking away the legal basis for the Black Codes and giving the federal government power to enforce equality in the states. They also made sure that anyone who rebels against the federal government can’t make or enforce the nation’s laws. 

Republicans in the 1860s would certainly have believed the Fourteenth Amendment covered Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of a presidential election. More, though, that amendment sought to establish, once and for all, the supremacy of the federal government over those who wanted to solidify their power in the states, where they could impose the will of a minority. That concept speaks directly to today’s Republicans.

In The Atlantic today, two prominent legal scholars from opposite sides of the political spectrum, former federal judge J. Michael Luttig and emeritus professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School Laurence H. Tribe, applauded the Baude-Paulsen article and suggested that the American people should support the “faithful application and enforcement of their Constitution.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[thebuzztrack]

Alan Arkin, Comic Actor With a Serious Side, Dies at 89

Alan Arkin, a versatile and acclaimed actor who won an Oscar for his supporting role in Little Miss Sunshine, died at age 89. Arkin was known for his comedic and dramatic skills, alongside his ability to play a wide range of characters, from a Russian submarine captain in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, to a con artist in The In-Laws, to a grumpy grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine. He was also a director, writer, musician, and singer who performed with the folk group The Tarriers and composed songs for movies and Broadway shows.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 26, 1934, to Jewish parents who were immigrants from Ukraine and Germany. He developed his interest in acting at a young age and joined a children's theater group. He studied drama at Los Angeles City College and Bennington College and joined the Second City improv troupe in Chicago. In 1963 he made his Broadway debut in the musical From the Second City, which earned him a Tony Award nomination. He also starred in the original Broadway production of Luv, a comedy by Murray Schisgal.

Arkin made his film debut in 1966 in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, a satire about the Cold War that earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor. He received another nomination for his role as a deaf mute in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in 1968. He also appeared in films such as Wait Until Dark, Catch-22, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Argo. He won his only Oscar for his performance as Edwin Hoover, a heroin-addicted grandfather who coaches his granddaughter for a beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine in 2006.

He was married three times and had three sons: Adam, Matthew, and Anthony, all are now actors. He also had four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was known for his wit, warmth, generosity, and ardent support for social justice and human rights. He supported causes such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and UNICEF. He was also an avid reader, painter, and chess player.

His death was announced by his family on Friday. He died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. His family said he was surrounded by love and laughter until the end. They also thanked his fans for their support and admiration over the years.

His legacy will live on through his work and influence on generations of actors and comedians. He was one of the pioneers of improvisational comedy and satire in film and theater. He brought humor and humanity to every role he played, regardless as a hero or a villain. He challenged stereotypes and conventions with his unconventional choices and performances. Arkin inspired many of his peers and successors with his talent, courage, and integrity. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and colleagues.