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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 4 months ago

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by Adam Kredo

Kamala Harris's newly appointed head of Arab-American outreach once accused Zionists of "controlling" American politics, echoing an anti-Semitic trope that suggests Jews nefariously manipulate global affairs.

"The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics," Brenda Abdelall, an Egyptian-American lawyer and former Department of Homeland Security official, said in a 2002 interview with the New York Sun while attending the American Muslim Council's annual convention. "I would say they're controlling a lot of it."

Abdelall, whom Harris tapped earlier this week to help galvanize Arab voters, made the remarks after a speaker at the event, anti-Israel professor Jamil Fayez, said that "Zionists are destroying America." Responding to his remarks, Abdelall said that while "'destroying' is a harsh word," supporters of the Jewish state do control American politics.

The American Muslim Council's 2002 confab also provided attendees with a chance to meet anti-Semitic former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.), who famously blamed Jews for the 9/11 terror attack and attended a 2009 Holocaust-denial gathering in London. Her father similarly blamed Jews when she lost her congressional seat shortly after the 2002 conference. "Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S," he said.

Abdelall's appointment comes as Harris works to appease members of her party's liberal flank who want her to more aggressively confront the Jewish state and undermine its war on Hamas, including by cutting off arms sales. Harris has praised pro-Hamas campus protesters as "showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza." In March, she accused Israel of stoking "humanitarian catastrophe."

Abdelall joins several other Harris campaign advisers who have a history of pressuring Israel and advocating increased relations with Iran. They include Harris's national security adviser, Phil Gordon, who is the subject of a congressional probe into his ties to a member of an Iranian government influence network. Ilan Goldenberg, Harris's liaison to the Jewish community, has faced scrutiny for his ties to the anti-Israel group J Street, as well as championing closer ties to Tehran.

Harris also appointed a veteran Israel critic, the Rev. Jen Butler, to conduct outreach to the faith community. Butler has come under fire for working alongside anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour.

Abdelall also is a veteran of the anti-Israel advocacy world.

During the 2002 American Muslim Council event, she suggested that the election defeat of former congressman Earl Hilliard Sr. (D., Ala.) "shows the Jewish influence in politics," according to the Sun. At the time, Hilliard had faced criticism from pro-Israel groups for voting against a congressional resolution condemning Palestinian suicide bombers.

Abdelall's mother founded the American Muslim Council's Ann Arbor branch, helping the anti-Israel advocacy group expand its presence across the country, according to the Sun.

The Harris campaign defended Adelall, saying that as a DHS official, she "worked closely on the implementation of the country's first National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism" and "led efforts for the first United We Stand summit, a White House event to counter hate-fueled violence."

"We are proud to add her to the campaign."

The American Muslim Council has long courted controversy for spreading anti-Israel propaganda.

In 2003, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) blasted the group's former executive director, Eric Erfan Vickers, for claiming "that the recent tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its entire crew was an act of divine retribution against Israel, and attributable to the presence of the first Israeli astronaut on the mission."

Vickers at the time said he saw "a sign in the calamitous destruction of the one hundred and thirteenth space shuttle mission taking place over a city named Palestine, while on board was the first Israeli astronaut." Nadler described the remarks as "unthinkable."

#brenda abdelall #kamala harris #american muslim council #rev jen butler #ilan goldenberg #zionists

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boscoebros · 8 months ago

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The Charm of Northern Exposure, Summed Up in 10 Episodes

Plucking out individual best episodes of Northern Exposure is like ranking individual cups pulled from the same expertly spiked punch. It’s not impossible to do, it just feels not in the spirit of the gift you’ve been given or the eccentrically twinkling host who’s presented it to you.

Of course, Northern Exposure, the tale of petulant young New York Jewish doctor Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow) sent against his will to the beyond-tiny town of Cicely, Alaska as payment for his med school debts, has its odd sour draught or two during its six-seasons.

Quirk can turn twee with just a single wrong step. From the start, the series, created by St. Elsewhere vets Joshua Brand and John Falsey (with executive production help by future Sopranos don David Chase) presented unsuspecting CBS viewers with a much headier and more ambitious formula than its fish-out-of-water premise suggested. That degree of difficulty, which only increased in each of the series’s six seasons, meant taking big creative swings.

The town of Cicely was quickly established as a haven for eccentrics of all stripes, from frostbitten locals with colorful backwoods backstories to transplants in various stages of flight; from old lives too fraught or too comfortably suburban for their liking, to the region’s Native population, whose culture and individuality were allowed far more complexity than on any American TV show at the time.

Installed in a crumbling storefront office with a largely monosyllabic Native receptionist named Marilyn Whirlwind (stealth series MVP Elaine Miles), the constantly kvetching Joel immediately began sparring with Maggie O’Connell (Janine Turner), the equally combative bush pilot (and Joel’s unimpressed landlord) in the sort of will-they/won’t-they relationship that, like Joel’s predicament, gradually receded in favor of fleshing out the series’s roster of singular figures.

Roaring over the town was Barry Corbin’s barrel-chested Maurice Minnifield, a former Oklahoma astronaut, millionaire, and bona fide American man’s man drawn to the untamed tundra as blank slate for his singular vision of an “Alaskan Riviera” hewn in his own stubborn image. Greeting the irascible Joel were everyone from a legendary sexagenarian animal trapper turned (mostly) pacifist barkeep, Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum) and his spacey but worldly 18-year-old former beauty pageant girlfriend Shelley (Cynthia Geary); aged and resolutely sensible town shopkeep, postmistress, and all-purpose town official Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips); philosophizing ex-con turned all-day radio DJ Chris (John Corbett); and perpetually amiable half-Indian teen and aspiring filmmaker Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows).

As the series progressed, Joel’s predicament persisted (he’d essentially been dragooned into Cicely by Maurice over his expected post in an Anchorage hospital) but sank back into ensemble status, with each character in turn bobbing up to take the show’s delightfully unpredictable center stage. (Whether due to his diminished role or contract disputes, Morrow chafed in his first series lead, eventually leaving partway through the sixth and final season.)

New oddballs emerged to fill out Cicely’s ranks: Adam Arkin’s mysteriously obnoxious master chef/mountain man Adam and his heiress hypochondriac wife Eve (Valerie Mahaffey), Anthony Edward’s bubble-bound lawyer Mike Monroe, fled to Alaska ahead of encroaching environmental allergies, Graham Greene’s Native medicine man and artist Leonard, Richard Cummings’ Bernard, revealed as Chris’ long lost Black half brother, and sharing the pair’s preternatural psychic bond.

Throughout it all, Falsey and Brand steered Northern Exposure according to their own set of wide-open, anything goes constellations. Dream sequences, strange local traditions and superstitions (Maggie’s old lovers have all died in unusual circumstances), singular personal obsessions and quests — anything could happen in Cicely. And, with astounding reliability, the results were as warm, weird, and welcoming as the people of Cicely themselves.

With the series at long last available to stream (all six seasons are on Prime Video), we’ve put together a list of 10 favorite episodes drawn from Northern Exposure’s heady brew of comedy, drama, and enduring whimsy, in broadcast order. Drink up.

"Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Big People" (Season 1, Episode 8)

By the time this first season finale aired, it was already crystal clear that Cicely didn’t need any outside help in the strangeness department. That doesn’t stop a massive full moon and the appearance of the shimmering-with-portent northern lights from putting a double-whammy on the town’s inhabitants. Some can’t sleep, others are drawn on mysterious walkabouts, and a confused, citified accountant from Portland shows up on a brand new Harley and immediately latches onto Chris’ barroom talk of the collective unconscious, with the mismatched pair gradually realizing that they share the same absent father.Northern Exposure tosses a lot into each episode’s hearty stew, and this was one of the first episodes to find the perfect balance of soulfulness, incident, and knockabout comedy.

"The Big Kiss" (Season 2, Episode 2)

Darren E. Burrows (son of perennial B-movie bad guy Billy Drago) is Cicely’s most endearing figure as Ed Chigliak, a patiently unassuming and guileless presence whose clouded backstory as a half-Native, half-white foundling the would-be Scorsese accepts from his tribal elders with typical resignation. At least until a 256-year-old Native spirit guide named One Who Waits (legendary character actor Floyd Red Crow Westerman) appears to no one but him and tells Ed he might just have a bead on the identities of Ed’s parents.

It’s to Northern Exposure’s credit that we can accept the reality of the delightfully deadpan One Who Waits, or not. But Ed’s ultimately fruitless journey is as resonant either way, his rapport with the old ghost registering in Burrows’ performance with aching sincerity and sweetness. One Who Waits would return in Season 4, and Westerman is always a gift, but that episode’s more concrete conclusion to Ed’s story pales next to the lovely ambiguity of his roadside encounter with a friendly older Native man in “The Big Kiss.”

"War and Peace" (Season 2, Episode 6)

While Northern Exposure would stretch its woozy reality in all manner of ways throughout its run, it never did so as straightforwardly or delightfully than in this tale of a famed Russian singer Nikolai Ivanovich Appollanov (Elya Baskin) whose intermittent appearances in Cicely are greeted with delight by everyone — except the Cold War patriotic Maurice. Challenged to renew their one-sided chess rivalry, perennial loser Maurice accuses the gentlemanly Russian of cheating, leading to a duel where the series’s typical spell of whimsical benevolence seems headed for inevitable, bloody disaster. Meanwhile, Ed’s first love with a randy preacher’s daughter sees the heartstruck teen turning to ladies man Chris for some Cyrano-style flowery prose, with similarly doomed results.

That both stories turn out unexpectedly more or less okay is a relief, although Ed’s heartbroken confrontation with the contrite and more worldly Chris is about as emotionally rough as Ed gets. The series decided not to spoil things, a decision that was as cheeky as it was refreshingly necessary to a viewing public mired in coverage of another needless overseas war.

"A-Hunting We Will Go" (Season 3, Episode 8)

Northern Exposure’s ostensible lead was one the series’ least successful elements, oddly. Joel’s incessant complaining about his plight might have been understandable, but Morrow struggled with the show’s often inconsistent treatment of the New Yorker’s wavering integration into Cicely’s mix. (The number of times Joel’s episode-ending epiphanies plop him right back into crabapple first position for the next are too numerous to list.) Still, when the show gets the ultra-rational Joel right, it really gets him right, as in this outing where the city boy feels duty-bound to test out his visceral revulsion against the locals’ offhand love of hunting.

Joel goes on the offensive about the “barbaric” bloodsport, only to accept Maggie’s challenge that, without experiencing the phenomenon himself, he’s just blowing hot air. Joining veteran hunters Holling and Chris on a grouse hunt brings Joel unexpected (and long-winded) elation—and then a huge comedown when he comes across the wounded bird he’d only managed to wing. Themes permeate the best Northern Exposure episodes in the slyest of ways. As Joel desperately tries to heal his victim, Ed becomes similarly protective of Ruth-Anne upon learning of her recent 75th birthday. IN the end, both men resign themselves to death’s looming and necessary presence in their own way, with Joel confiding to Maggie how death and killing are two very different things and Ed’s surprise gift to Ruth-Anne seeing the two literally dancing on her grave.

"Burning Down the House" (Season 3, Episode 14)

Opposing forces meet more often than Cicely’s benign exterior suggests, with this third-season installment proving that a community packed with dreamers will occasionally spit out some darker fancies.

When Chris builds a catapult in order to “fling” a live cow in order to create what he terms a “perfect moment,” only Joel objects, the rest of Cicely regarding the stunt with idle curiosity. (After all, as Marilyn states, they’re going to eat the cow.) Throughout the series, this undercurrent of eccentricity edging into rustic anarchy runs through Cicely—it’s like they’re one rough winter away from stuffing Joel into a wicker man. Here, the unfortunate cow is only saved via an artistic quandary, not a moral one, as Ed accidentally reveals how the whole cow-flinging concept has been done in one particular movie. Chris adjusts to a less-lethal concept, with the resulting fling filling the assembled townsfolk (and viewers) with suitably collective awe.

“Three Amigos” (Season 3, Episode 16)

The bond between former astronaut and American hero Maurice Minnifield and legendary game hunter Holling Vincoeur gets the rough and tumble outdoor adventure tale it deserves in this episode where the two old friends and romantic rivals strike out into the wilderness to fulfill the last wish of an old friend. Pros Barry Corbin and John Cullum had career-best roles on Northern Exposure, and they’re never better than here, as the two aging tough guys brave impossible weather and their own aging bodies to bury wild Bill Haney, their longtime drinking, hunting, and brawling buddy at the legendarily treacherous No-Name Point.

Portrayed often as two distinct but similar examples of a dying breed of masculinity, both men ultimately have to concede that dying for your word might not be all it's cracked up to be, especially for two old men with warm beds and, in Holling’s case, Shelly to return to. Willie Nelson on the soundtrack singing “Hands on the Wheel” over scenes the boys’ game attempts to honor an old promise signals an elegiac farewell to an old way of life.

"Cicely" (Season 3, Episode 23)

With its season order expanded after two short first go-rounds, Season 3 gave Northern Exposure even more territory to explore stylistically. A flashback episode might not sound groundbreaking, but this tale of the founding of Cicely reframes everything we thought we knew about Alaska’s most eccentric town, all while lending unexpected insight into its denizens, all of whom pop up in different roles in the reminiscences of a 108-year-old man (veteran actor Roberts Blossom) who Joel accidentally hits with his pickup.

Brought to Joel’s cabin for treatment, the old man spins a yarn about the town’s eventual founders, a pair of lesbian free-thinkers named Jo and Cicely (Jo Anderson and Yvonne Suhor) who fled polite Montana society to create a matriarchal utopia right in the dangerously lawless heart of untamed Alaska. The story of the rough-and-tumble Jo and the delicate Cicely plays out with the tragic heroism of two such forward-thinking (gay, female) dreamers. The town is turned around and only a stray bullet (and some “kill your gays” TV tradition) prevents a completely happy ending. Still, as Joel drops the old man at the graveyard where he’s come to honor Cicely’s 100th birthday, Cicely, Alaska comes that much further into focus.

"Thanksgiving" (Season 4, Episode 8)

The Native population of Northern Exposure is an integral part of the show’s melting pot of oddballs, but this eventful episode adds a needed dose of spice surrounding the outwardly ordinary Indian citizens’ existence in a colonized America. Walking to work, Joel is ambushed with a tomato hurled by the friendly Ed, introducing the yearly tradition by which Cicely’s native population takes out centuries of otherwise sublimated anger and resentment in a symbolically messy assault on the town’s white people.

While the rest of Cicely’s white folks uncomplainingly accept this once a year pelting, Joel complains to Marilyn that his status as a perpetually oppressed Jew should exempt him from the Native’s wrath. It’s when he sinks into an even more miserable than usual depression upon being informed that his intended four-year sentence as Cicely’s general practitioner has been (thanks to inflation) upped another year that Marilyn finally recognizes Joel’s kinship with the town’s Natives.

Listening to the bereft and unshaven doctor’s fetal position lament about his complete and utter lack of hope, Marilyn tells Joel he can now march in the Native’s day of the dead parade. “You’re not white anymore,” coming from the no-bullshit Marilyn, lands with unexpected force on Joel, and us. The people of Cicely, in their insularity, are free to process generations of racial and personal trauma in their own unique manner, and as the whole town, Indian and white, gathers at The Brick for a sumptuous post-parade Thanksgiving feast, Joel is free to complain to the face-painted Ed about his own misfortune in strangely liberating kinship.

"Mister Sandman" (Season 5, Episode 12)

The northern lights are back and everyone’s having each other’s dreams. What sounds like a high-concept lark turns typically thought-provoking and stubbornly resonant, as Maggie jumps into Holling’s revelatory dreams about his horrible, abusive father, Joel sleepwalks into Ruth-Anne’s store with a little boy’s thwarted dreams about bottomless candy, and Maurice becomes incensed when one of a pair of gay B&B proprietors (Doug Ballard’s Ron) discovers Maurice’s secret dreams involving women’s shoes.

There’s plenty to unpack, as with most dreams, and there are laughs aplenty around the margins. But it’s in the townsfolk’s variously grudging willingness to accept that their unpredictable home has yet another metaphysical trick up its sleeve that “Mister Sandman” achieves surprising depth. Holling has long decried his French-Canadian lineage’s legacy of awful behavior, here evincing a revulsion to food tied both to Shelly’s pregnancy and his repressed memories of his mother and father. And Maurice, whose bluff, all-purpose bigotry is never quite offset by his old school macho act, gets into a truly ugly poker table confrontation with Ron and his partner Erick (Don R. McManus) stemming from what he considers these “deviants’” insight into his private thoughts.It’s up to the sage Ruth-Anne to have some frank talk with Maurice about his bigotry, and Joel to overcome his usual skepticism when he sees that Maggie’s recounting of her dream actually assists in treating the despondent Holling.

"The Quest" (Season 6, Episode 15)

Rob Morrow’s desire to leave Northern Exposure (he’d already filmed Robert Redford’s Quiz Show during Season 5) is given a typically strange payoff in his final season fantasy/dream/who-knows final outing. After Joel and Maggie’s on-and-off romance sputtered one too many times, the perpetually disgruntled Joel had left Cicely some episodes earlier, going AWOL on his debts and setting himself up as the GP of an even more upriver Native village. Unexpectedly arriving in the middle of the night at Maggie’s house, the shaggy and wild-eyed doctor unfurls an ancient trapper’s map, claiming to have uncovered the location of the mythical lost city of Kiwa’ani and asking for Maggie to fly him the first leg of his trip to find this magical “jeweled city.”

As far as goodbyes to disgruntled stars go, “The Quest” is a confoundingly thorny metaphysical flight of fancy. With the skeptical Maggie in tow, the obsessed Joel first encounters one of those elderly Japanese soldiers still fighting WWII (and is repaid for his ensuing medical treatment with a bounty of sushi), almost gets sidetracked in an impossible, dreamlike spa in the middle of the Alaskan nowhere, and finally coming across an incongruously locked chain-link bridge fence and the abusive gatekeeper (who looks suspiciously identical to Adam) demanding the answer to an impossible riddle. Joel answers and spies the glittering skyline of his beloved Manhattan in the mists—and he walks into it, and out of Northern Exposure forever.

Is the episode something of a make-the-best-of-it exercise? Maybe. But it’s a great one, perfectly in keeping with the series’ spirit. As Marilyn sense Joel’s departure with a signature, unreadable “Good bye” back in Cicely and Maggie receives a days-later postcard of the Staten Island ferry from Joel reading “New York is a state of mind,” “The Quest” stretches Northern Exposure’s woozy reality to its breaking point while still slotting comfortably—and touchingly — into the show’s world in as satisfying a way as could be hoped.

~ Dennis Perkins || Primetimer

#Northern Exposure #Joel #Maggie #Maurice #Shelley #Holling #Adam #Eve #Marilyn #Leonard #Mike #Ruth Ann #Bernard #Chris

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mthofferings2023 · 1 year ago

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Tiptapricot

See Tiptapricot’s existing works here and here.

Preferred contact methods: Tumblr: Tiptapricot Email: [email protected] Instagram: tiptapricot_vibes

Preferred organizations: - Autistic Self Advocacy Network - Native American Rights Fund - RIP Medical Debt - The Bail Project - Transgender Law Center (See the list of approved organizations here)

Will create works that contain: Sfw: Fluff, angst, horror, inhuman exploration, domesticity, falling in love, nonsexual intimacy, role swap, missing scenes, time loop/time travel AUs, sci fi, mixed canons from media, trans exploration, aspec exploration. Nsfw: explicit content with any of the above, transmasc porn, t-dick smut, frottage, grinding, monster sex, tentacles, aphrodisiacs, cock warming, weird sex, voyeurism/exhibitionism, more if asked.

Will not create works that contain: Yandere, dark!AUs, intentional OOC, scat play, piss play, non-monster blood play, heavy BDSM, bestiality, underage sex (whether between minors or between an adult and a minor), incestuous content, childbirth, period sex, cannibalism (aspects of monster-related eating may be discussed), race play, age play, medical abuse, suicide/self harm (references and content may be discussed), heavy non-con/dub-con (aspects involved in kinks may be discussed), heavy gore/heavy sexual gore (can be discussed in certain contexts), explicit and visceral murder, religious alteration/other religion AUs for Jewish characters, plural erasure/separate body/no system AUs for plural characters, magical genderswap/other gender AUs (fantastical trans explorations may be discussed), Bemis's run, Pepose’s City of the Dead characterization (though plot elements from CotD are welcome to be utilized), OCs, reader inserts

-- Fic or Other Writing --

Auction ID: 1125

Will create works for the following relationships: Steven Grant/Jake Lockley/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Layla El-Faouly/Steven Grant/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Logan/Charles Xavier - X-Men: Evolution Miguel O'Hara-centric - Spider-Verse (animated films) Miguel O'Hara/Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson - Spider-Verse (animated films) Jean-Paul Duchamp/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Layla El-Faouly/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley/Greer Grant Nelson/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Jean-Paul Duchamp & Layla El-Faouly & Steven Grant & Jake Lockley & Marc Spector - 616, MCU Astronaut Marc/Jean-Paul Duchamp - 616, MCU Yehya Badr & Steven Grant & Jake Lockley & Marc Spector & the Midnight Mission crew - 616, MCU

Work Description: (This is my SFW listing, if you are interested in explicit/sexual work, please look for my other auction.) This listing is for a generally safe for work fic piece starting at ~1,000 words. Each $5 bid will increase the piece’s word count by ~500 words, up to ~5,000 words maximum. If desired by the winner, the resulting word count may be split among multiple smaller fics. It may also inhabit a lower word count than the maximum if it is hit in bidding (IE: even if this auction hits a $55 bid, if you would like only a 2k word fic, I can do that). Word count is not exact and I may go slightly over or under depending on what fits the story best, but I will try to stick as close as I can. Due to current projects and plans, I will not be able to begin active prose work on this piece until early 2024 (likely early January, if not a bit later. I will communicate my availability with the winner). Discussions, planning, and an outline are welcome to be discussed and hammered out before then. This piece as well as my other listing will be taking the place of two regular commission slots for my January opening, and it is unlikely I will open more slots at that time. Winning a listing from me here is the best way to guarantee a slot from me in the near future. Clarifications for listed relationships: For any group platonic relationships or polyamorous romantic relationships, I am open to the whole group listed, as well as any combination of characters listed within that group (IE: I am open to writing polyamorous Marc/Steven/Jake, as well as only Marc/Jake or only Marc/Steven. This applies to platonic groups like the Midnight Mission Crew as well, as in I am open to writing stories only featuring Badr, Reese, and Soldier being friends, or only Steven and The House of Shadows). If a relationship you are interested in is not listed here but seems to fit with what I’m open to (IE: Greer & Frenchie, House of Shadows-centric, or even Miguel & The Moon Knight System), you are welcome to bid and reach out to discuss it with me. I may not be open to all pair ups or explorations, however, so please make sure you are at least interested in a story with what I already have listed currently. The "Astronaut Marc" listing refers to Captain Spector/Commander/MK-1 AKA the spaceman alter featured in the Lemire run, and his inner world version of Frenchie who fights alongside him. I am open to headcanoned characterizations/stories for these two, as well as larger AUs should the winner want to do something extra fun with them. Further content clarifications: I am open to melding aspects of different universes together in whatever way the winner would like (IE: MCU Moon Knight System interacting with Lemire Run events). Additionally, characters regularly a part of the chosen cast but not listed above are welcome (IE: Gena, Crawley, Lyla, Mayday), and additional side characters or Marvel cameos are welcome as long as I am given ample communication on versions and where to find information on them if I’m not familiar with them. While 616 is listed for all Moon Knight characters, I am not comfortable writing for runs I am not familiar with or am uncomfortable with (see DNWs above for some runs). I am most familiar with the Lemire 2016 run and the MacKay 2021 run versions of the characters. Headcanoned versions of additional Moon Knight system headmates are allowed to a certain extent (IE: Mr. Knight as a separate headmate or Dr. Harrow as a separate headmate would be fine, an original child alter would not). Examples of my work can be found in my portfolio links! What I have posted covers a range of content and word count, depending on the length and story type you are looking for. When contacting me after winning, please have a general idea of the story you would like to see. Further discussion on things like specific beats, headcanons, point of view, and tense may be discussed after.

Ratings: Gen, Teen, Mature

Can pods bid on this auction? Yes - Podbids welcome!

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

-- Fic or Other Writing --

Auction ID: 2061

Will create works for the following relationships: Steven Grant/Jake Lockley/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Layla El-Faouly/Steven Grant/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Miguel O'Hara/Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson - Spider-Verse (animated films) Miguel O'Hara-centric - Spider-Verse (animated films) Khonshu-centric - 616, MCU Jean-Paul Duchamp/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Jean-Paul Duchamp/Steven Grant - 616 Layla El-Faouly/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley/Greer Grant Nelson/Marc Spector - 616, MCU Astronaut Marc/Jean-Paul Duchamp - 616, MCU The House of Shadows-centric - 616

Work Description: (This is my NSFW listing, if you are interested in non-sexual work, please look for my other auction.) This listing is for a sexually explicit fic piece starting at ~1,000 words. Each $2 bid will increase the piece’s word count by ~200 words, up to ~4,000 words maximum. If desired by the winner, the resulting word count may be split among multiple smaller fics. It may also inhabit a lower word count than the maximum if it is hit in bidding (IE: even if this auction hits a $40 bid, if you would like only a 2k word fic, I can do that). Word count is not exact and I may go slightly over or under depending on what fits the story best, but I will try to stick as close as I can. Due to current projects and plans, I will not be able to begin active prose work on this piece until early 2024 (likely early January, if not a bit later. I will communicate my availability with the winner). Discussions, planning, and an outline are welcome to be discussed and hammered out before then. This piece as well as my other listing will be taking the place of two regular commission slots for my January opening, and it is unlikely I will open more slots at that time. Winning a listing from me here is the best way to guarantee a slot from me in the near future. Clarifications for listed relationships/characters: For any polyamorous relationships, I am open to the whole group listed, as well as any combination of characters listed within that group (IE: I am open to writing polyamorous Marc/Steven/Jake/Jean-Paul, as well as any combination within such as Marc/Jake, Jean-Paul/Jake/Steven, etc.). If a relationship you are interested in is not listed here but seems to fit with what I’m open to (IE: Layla and Jean-Paul both being with the Moon Knight System at the same time, someone engaging sexually with the House of Shadows, Miguel x MK System) you are welcome to bid and reach out to discuss it with me. I may not be open to all pair ups or explorations, however, so please make sure you are at least interested in a story with what I already have listed. The "Astronaut Marc" listing refers to Captain Spector/Commander/MK-1 AKA the spaceman alter featured in the Lemire run, and his inner world version of Frenchie who fights alongside him. I am open to headcanoned characterizations/stories for these two, as well as larger AUs should the winner want to do something extra fun with them. Both the House of Shadows and Khonshu are listed as I greatly enjoy inanimate/nonhuman/godly sex, and if anyone out there would like some good old eldritch building or god fucking, I am very very open to that. I am very specific about how I pair Khonshu with other characters, however, so work with him would be less flexible on what I’m open for outside of a solo scenario. Although comics Steven/Jean-Paul is covered by my polyamorous relationship pair up rule, I am especially interested in the MacKay versions of Steven and Jean-Paul as a ship, and would love to create for them. Further content clarifications: I would like the focus of this story to be on sexual intimacy, porn, etc. as I’m interested in creating a short and smutty piece we can both be excited about and have fun with, so as long as it fits with my content boundaries, weird and wild ideas are welcome! Plot build up outside of the main sexual content will be kept to a minimum unless further discussed. I am open to melding aspects of different universes together in whatever way the winner would like (IE: MCU Moon Knight System interacting with Lemire Run events). Additionally, characters regularly a part of the chosen cast but not listed above are welcome to feature (IE: Gena, Crawley, Lyla, Mayday), and additional side characters or Marvel cameos are welcome but only in brief mentions or appearances. Trans headcanons are more than welcome for any character! And further headcanons such as kink preference, body features (bottom growth, top surgery/bottom surgery or not, etc.) may be discussed as well. While 616 is listed for all Moon Knight characters, I am not comfortable writing for runs I am not familiar with or am uncomfortable with (see DNWs above for some runs). I am most familiar with the Lemire 2016 run and the MacKay 2021 run versions of the characters. Headcanoned versions of additional Moon Knight system headmates are allowed to a certain extent (IE: Mr. Knight as a separate headmate or Dr. Harrow as a separate headmate would be fine, an original child alter would not). Examples of my explicit work can be found in my portfolio links! If you would like further examples of my explicit content, a few short original pieces may be found here and here. When contacting me after winning, please have a general idea of the story you would like to see. Further discussion on things like specific beats, headcanons, point of view, and tense may be discussed after.

Ratings: Explicit

Can pods bid on this auction? Yes - Podbids welcome!

CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

The auction runs from October 22 (12 AM ET) to October 28 (11:59:59 PM ET). Visit marveltrumpshate.com during Auction Week to view all of our auctions and to place your bids!

#Tiptapricot #auction: fic #mth 2023

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teachersource · 2 years ago

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Judith Resnik was born on April 5, 1949. An American electrical engineer, software engineer, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA astronaut who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger during the launch of mission STS-51-L. Resnik was the fourth woman, the second American woman, and the first Jewish woman of any nationality to fly in space, logging 145 hours in orbit.

#judith resnik #astronauts #nasa #space shuttle challenger #women in space #women in history #women in science #science #science history #science birthdays #on this day #on this day in science history

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star-kissed583 · 2 years ago

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These are just some head cannons that I thought of for the septic egos. While they may change from time to time-These are some of the main one:

Henrik:

National: German/Jewish

Height: 5 ft 10 in (179.9cm)

Gender: He/him

Sexuality: Gay 🏳️‍🌈 homoromantic

Looks:

light brown hair with few gray strikes,

pasty white skin with freckles around cheeks and nose

Icy blue and grey eyes behind round glasses

Has a tattoo sleeve for both arms

Prosthetic left leg from an accident (maybe I’ll right about it

Pretty muscular form but not too muscular. Just enough

Fun random facts:

Lost his leg when he was 10 years old

Was part of wrestling and track team

Everyone knows he’s a ✨nerd✨ but a handsome 🔥nerd🔥

He used to want to be an astronaut…but after his accident he wanted to be a doctor

More probably will be told later😌

Marvin:

Nationality: French/American

Height: 5 ft 7 in (172.31cm)

Gender: He/they/she (Gender-fluid)

Sexuality: Homoromantic Asexual

Looks:

Long wavy, dirty blond hair

Light tan skin with a small mole by his right eye

Almost violet-blue eyes

Piercing on her belly button and ears.

More lean and skinny figure

Random facts:

Basically started their own clothing line

Best friends with Jackie (known since 8 years old)

Sassy bitch that wears makeup and WILL judge your style

An amazing cook (could beat Gordon Ramsey-but not JJ)

Is a survivor of breast cancer (has small tattoo symbol on side)

More to be known later 🤭

Jackie:

Nationality: Netherlands

Height: 6ft 3in (190.5 cm)

Gender: he/him

Sexuality: pansexual panromantic

Looks:

Long enough dark brown hair to tie in man bun

Baby blue eyes

Big bright smile

But more muscles that Henrik

Has scars a some burn marks—Special scar is the chest scars

Random facts)

Did American football in high school

Definitely doesn’t have ADHD

Transgender (born Female and transitioned to male)

Always wanted to be a police officer-but Marvin says he should get a restraining order for his fashion😌

Bad habit of not caring for himself 😬

More added later-

Chase:

Nationality: probably Mexican/American

Height: 5 ft 6.5 in (169cm)

Gender: He/him

Sexuality: bisexual biromantic

Looks:

Super dark brown hair that’s curly

Light brown skin colour

Chocolate brown eyes

A well built enough figure

Birth mark on his side of the neck

Fun facts:

Played soccer and did track and got the legs of steel😎

Best friend is Henrik and both had trouble speaking English at first

Shitty ex, but got some sweet kids who are his entire world

Dad jokes-lots and lots of dad jokes

Stubborn as hell but who’s to stop him 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anti:

Nationality: Irish/Korean

Height: 5ft 7in (170.7cm)

Gender: He/they

Sexuality: BIG GAY

Looks:

Black hair

Pale ass skin

One green eye and the other is blue

Lean figure but don’t let it fool you…they’re stronggg💪🏼

Piercings and the scar on his neck

Fun facts:

Black belt in martial arts

Owns a motorcycle that he treats like his B A B Y

most definitely not the emo one

Probably works as a spy or assassin 🤷🏻‍♀️

A teddy bear if you’re close to them (JJ)

Loves porcelain, antique teacups. Probably has a shit ton in a furniture

JJ:

Nationality: British/Greek

Height: 5 ft 3in (160.02cm)

Gender: they/he

Sexuality: Demisexual and romantic

Looks:

Black hair

Bright teal/green eyes

Pale skin with freckles all over

Has some scars but don’t ask about them

Fun facts:

They’re an Angel. Don’t mess or upset the Angel or everyone is after you…especially Anti

Wears the most bright pastel colours of the group

Does dance, ballet, ice skating-no judging allowed

Super flexible because they used to be in gymnastics when they were young

Best friends with Anti and under his protection.

Depending on what I’m writing-they’re mute, selective or not, or has powers to think his thoughts to others mind, or other exceptions that may happen depending on the story🤷🏻‍♀️

Basically these may change depending on what I write or draw-but these are basically main ideas I had of these egos! They may change or more will be added😌

#headcanon #jse fandom #septic egos #jameson jackson #henrik von schneeplestein #chase bro average #marvin the magnificent #antisepticeye #jackieboy man #spaceyheadcannons

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j-stcrm · 2 years ago

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ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʙɪᴏ ; johnny storm

❝ The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. ❞

→ pinterest | playlist ( + pietro )

↳ BASIC INFO

Character’s full name: Jonathan Spencer Maximoff-Storm Meaning of name: God’s gift Other Titles: Human Torch Birth date: June 8th Zodiac: Gemini Nationality / Ethnicity / Species: American, Jewish, human Languages Spoken: English, Russian Pronouns: he/him Orientation: Demisexual Superpower: he can engulf his entire body in flames, fly, absorb fire harmlessly into his own body, and control any nearby fire by sheer force of will. Occupation: astrophysicist, former astronaut, Avenger Relationship Status: married to Pietro Maximoff

↳ APPEARANCE

Age: 30 Height: 5′7 Body build: very muscular, athletic Eye color: pale blue Predominant features: his eyes Hair color and type: light blonde, naturally curly but he keeps it styled because he hates it

↳ PERSONALITY

Good traits: athletic, charming, compassionate, confident, loyal, kind-hearted, intelligent, quick-witted. Bad traits: brash, cocky, hard-headed, hot tempered, overly flirtatious, rebellious, reckless, vain. Hogwarts House: Gryffindor Character Theme Song: Play with Fire - Sam Tinnesz Personality Type: ESFP / ‘the entertainer,’ care-free, very extroverted, social.

↳ PAST

Hometown: Los Angeles, California | moved to New York City as a teen Type of childhood: Johnny grew up in LA with his sister, Sue. their father was killed in a car accident before their freshman year of high school. their mother struggled emotionally and lacked mental stability following her death, so they relocated to New York to live with their aunt, their mom’s sister, Margaret. Education: he received an athletic scholarship to play football at Stanford, but an injury his senior year prevented him from pursuing that. so he pursued another dream and studied astrophysics at Caltech.

↳ PRESENT

Current location: New York City, but he visits Asgard regularly now Currently living with: Pets: Luna; maltese puppy

↳ FAMILY

Mother: Mary Storm

Relationship: he’s close to his mom and struggled watching her mental difficulties following their father’s death, taking on a lot of that emotionally himself. as a result, he struggles with containing his emotions now, which, with his abilities being emotion driven occasionally, isn’t a good thing.

Father: Franklin Storm

Relationship: he had a strained relationship with his dad and often felt a lot of pressure academically/in regards to his athletic career.

Sister: Sue Storm

Relationship: He’s close to his big sister.

Other important family members: Children:

↳ RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS

Husband Pietro Maximoff Best friend: Klara Arnesdòttir, Peter Parker Ex:

↳ BIO

A star athlete in high school, Johnny had his sights on playing football on his college scholarship and moving to pro after graduation. But an injury his senior year put a halt to those plans. Always having had an interest in space, and excelling in all of his class, Johnny changed direction and went to school to study astrophysics. A few years into his career, the ship Johnny was traveling on had a crash landing after traveling through cosmic rays. He survived, but was exposed to radiation that altered his genetic makeup. He gained the ability to envelop his body in fire, which proves to be bad more times than not, seeing as the ability is triggered by anger and emotions - and he doesn’t have good control over those.

#i got you - moonlight // musings.#pinned post.#bio.

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stephenjaymorrisblog · 4 months ago

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Communist Derangement Syndrome

(The Mental Illness That Never Goes Away)

Stephen Jay Morris

8/18/24

©Scientific Morality

The Republicans are hurling every smear, character assassination, and vilification at the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee their pea brains can muster. Now, they are going with a seemingly ancient epitaph from the 1950’s. They are calling Kamala Harris a Communist! Can you believe that?! That’s like calling Trump a Jewish Astronaut, or Stephen Miller, Samson!

Rich WASPs have this obsessive fear of Communists’ confiscating their property and wealth. Imagine spending your whole life, worrying about your material possessions. It must be a living hell! Elon Musk has that fear. As such, he sides with white racists, fascists, and Christian Nationalists, thinking they’ve got his back in protecting his empire. Well, if he had more brain cells, he’d realize what that paranoid slogan, “trust no one,” means. If the authoritarian right ever took over, they would render decisions about his private property and money, and he would have no say. The fascists are notorious for betrayal and lies. Keep it up, stupid, spoiled, rich kids!

We have a new “Axis of Fascism” in the world. Right wing dictators from Israel to Russia are using the same old tactic of their predecessors to conquer the world: Anti-Communism! Generation Z does not know what that means. I wish I had that innocence. But, no! Instead, I still recall memories of bomb shelter signs, drop drills in my classroom, and wagging fingers of self-righteous conservatives telling me it’s my fault that I’m poor. How soldiers in Vietnam were protecting me from communism. How policemen were my best friends. And to always listen to my parents. However, this anti-communist shit got progressively worse as the years wore on. Remember, anti-communism and antisemitism walk hand and hand. Next came the John Birch Society, who took it to an even lower level. Finally, some pranksters who called themselves “QAnon,” morphed anti-communism into a deep state of paranoia, where pedophilia was part of the Communist agenda. Why didn’t they just take their conspiracy theories and write fictional stories to get rich? You notice how most advocates of free enterprise and capitalism never have money?

Since American conservatives are anti-intellectual, they don’t know what truly qualifies or defines a communist. You can call yourself a professional football player, but it doesn’t make you one. Anybody who thinks that being a white male who believes in Jesus makes them superior to anybody else is delusional. It doesn’t. If you hate America and wear thrift shop clothes, that doesn’t make you a communist. A stupid conservative may believe that, but it’s blatantly absurd.

First, advocating for free food and housing is not communistic. Hell, the military gives soldiers free food and housing. Providing free health care and free education is not communism, it’s logical. How can you have an empire when all its citizens are sick and homeless?

Now, let’s get to presidential candidate, Kamala Harris. Is she a communist? Fuck no, she aint! At worst, she is a bourgeois liberal. If she was a communist, her policies would be to abolish wealthy property owners and for workers to work for free: no wages, no profits, no monetary system. Karl Marx advocated for a moneyless society. Or maybe Kamala is a Fabian socialist? I don’t think so. Before you run for president, the government vets you thoroughly. I doubt that she would install a Marxist system surreptitiously. If she was sneaky, she would have joined the CIA. Imagine Red-baiting Kamala Harris! She is a big-hearted, dignified, intelligent woman who wants to help struggling Americans.

If you ask me, the conservatives are Fabian fascists. Did I ever tell you I hate these people?

#stephenjaymorris #poets on tumblr #american politics #youtube #anarchism #poets of tumblr #baby boomers #anarchopunk #anarchocommunism #satire

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brookstonalmanac · 4 months ago

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Events 8.10 (affter 1950)

1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdraws its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central Vietnam. 1954 – At Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held. 1961 – Vietnam War: The U.S. Army begins Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. 1966 – The Heron Road Bridge collapses while being built, killing nine workers in the deadliest construction accident in both Ottawa and Ontario. 1969 – A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. 1971 – The Society for American Baseball Research is founded in Cooperstown, New York. 1977 – In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") is arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year. 1978 – Three members of the Ulrich family are killed in an accident. This leads to the Ford Pinto litigation. 1981 – Murder of Adam Walsh: The head of John Walsh's son is found. This inspires the creation of the television series America's Most Wanted and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 1988 – Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II. 1990 – The Magellan space probe reaches Venus. 1993 – Two earthquakes affect New Zealand. A 7.0 Mw  shock (intensity VI (Strong)) in the South Island was followed nine hours later by a 6.4 Mw  event (intensity VII (Very strong)) in the North Island. 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the bombing. Michael Fortier pleads guilty in a plea-bargain for his testimony. 1997 – Sixteen people are killed when Formosa Airlines Flight 7601 crashes near Beigan Airport in the Matsu Islands of Taiwan. 1998 – HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah is proclaimed the crown prince of Brunei with a Royal Proclamation. 1999 – Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting. 2001 – The 2001 Angola train attack occurred, causing 252 deaths. 2001 – Space Shuttle program: The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-105 to the International Space Station, carrying the astronauts of Expedition 3 to replace the crew of Expedition 2. 2003 – The Okinawa Urban Monorail is opened in Naha, Okinawa. 2009 – Twenty people are killed in Handlová, Trenčín Region, in the deadliest mining disaster in Slovakia's history. 2012 – The Marikana massacre begins near Rustenburg, South Africa, resulting in the deaths of 47 people. 2014 – Forty people are killed when Sepahan Airlines Flight 5915 crashes at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport. 2018 – Horizon Air employee Richard Russell hijacks and performs an unauthorized takeoff on a Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 plane at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in Washington, flying it for more than an hour before crashing the plane and killing himself on Ketron Island in Puget Sound. 2018 – An anti-government rally turns into a riot when members of the Romanian Gendarmerie attack the 100,000 people protesting in front of the Victoria Palace, leading to 452 recorded injuries. The authorities alleged that the crowd was infiltrated by hooligans who began attacking law enforcement agents. 2019 – Thirty-two are killed and one million are evacuated as Typhoon Lekima makes landfall in Zhejiang, China. Earlier it had caused flooding in the Philippines. 2019 – Philip Manshaus shoots his stepsister and attacks a mosque in the Bærum mosque shooting. 2020 – Derecho in Iowa becomes the most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history.

#Events

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alexilulu · 6 months ago

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Books I Read in 2024, #13: The Yiddish Policeman's Union (Michael Chabon, HarperCollins, 2007)

Set in an alternate history of the world in which a 1940 proposal for part of the state of Alaska be ceded to Jewish refugees of the Kristallnacht and other European countries oppression, the novel follows alcoholic fail-detective Meyer Landsman of the Sitka police department and his cousin and partner Berko Shemetz investigating the murder of a heroin-addicted chess player in the same run-down hotel Meyer lives in. The novel is set against the backdrop of Reversion, the end of the 60 year grant of the land that Sitka was founded on to the Jewish refugees running out in 2 months and returning the land to Tlingit ownership.

This one is gonna be complicated. Spoilers below. I'm leaving reblogs and comments on, but I will turn that shit off if things go bad.

I want to start up front with the fact that I adore this novel's prose. Chabon paints a wonderful, dreary picture of a city that has flourished into a home for more than one generation of Jewish family, built against the backdrop of the majority Indian land around it and the cold-to-hot relations between the Tlingit tribes nearby and the dense, interconnected Jewish community's own tangled web of beliefs and ways of life. While not the main form of worship in the city, the Orthodox families and sects are prominent and are featured greatly in the novel, and the novel takes care to note that nearly everyone involved is speaking Yiddish unless they lapse into American. Loanwords are peppered throughout from Russian and elsewhere, including some classic New York yiddish colloquialisms for cops and their various accoutrements that play well with the prose.

Meyer is a fun protagonist. The son of a holocaust survivor, Landsman is a homicide detective who has slowly slid down the hill of alcoholism, neglect and a personality disorder into becoming a bitter, sad man slumping into middle age. His ex-wife is his new commanding officer in the face of the impending Reversion of Sitka back to Tlingit land ownership, and he's living in a flophouse motel that mostly sees patronage of sex workers and drug addicts. And then the bellman checks on a patron and finds a dead body, and it's Meyer's problem.

The world is richly described, and I mean both on establishing the divergence points for the history and making you wonder how much flows out from there. The primary divergence point is the death of the Alaskan Territory's House of Representatives delegate during the argument for the creation of the Sitka settlement; in our world, the proposal for a jewish refugee space in Alaska died in its infancy thanks to him as well as the cool response to the proposal by Franklin D Roosevelt, who wanted to limit it to 10,000 refugees a year as well as only 10% of those being Jewish.

Everything spirals out from there; Only 2 million people die in the Holocaust, Germany manages to hold out longer against the Soviets with the increased focus on the war until it is destroyed in nuclear fire in 1946. The Zionist state of Israel only survives for 3 months, collapsing during the Arab-Israel war and leaving Palestine...well, we'll talk about it in a minute. Some things are different merely to have fun, and frankly, they are. Manchurian astronauts, a third Russian Republic, and the state of Persia remaining are only the highlights of the asides seen throughout.

The plot itself is nothing to write home about as a mystery. Presented with the death of a heroin addict, Meyer digs in even as his ex-wife commander tells him to drop it and to finish off every open case they have before Reversion, and asks some hard questions about the man until he discovers that the dead man is the former Tzaddik Ha-Dor, a once-in-a-generation messiah and miracle worker who could lead the Jews home to Jerusalem, who ran away from his family at least a decade prior. Informing his father, the head of the Orthodox mafia of the city, leads Meyer to get his badge stripped from him following a coincidental shootout he enters chasing another tip he received.

Okay. So this is where things get weird.

For those among you who may not know, there is a standing prophecy in the Jewish community that the construction of the Third Temple (Which comes after Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple, where the Dome of the Rock now stands) during the return of Messiah would bring about the redemption of the Jewish people and a return to their homeland. So we have the Tzaddik Ha-Dor, and all you need then is a third temple and a red heifer, unblemished and pure, to sacrifice at that temple to bring about the Messianic Age and the world to come.

The plot is that a secular mercenary set of ethnic Jews are preparing to bomb the Dome of the Rock and needed the Tzaddik for this, as (outside some more radical sects) the presence of Messiah is needed for the Third Temple to be built and for the sacrifice of the red heifer to be accepted. This is being aided by the Orthodox mafia and the US federal government (the president is a vocal evangelical christian Zionist who is calling for a Neo-Zionism to take back Jerusalem. Ultimately, the Tzaddik died because he chose that he did not want to be responsible for so much death in his name.

This is the crux of my problem with this novel. Chabon professed (in the New York Times interview dedicated to this novel, released shortly before it was published) that his novel was built around the idea of what the world would look like without Israel, and on many levels, it does. I ultimately find it deeply short-sighted and frankly cruel in the way it sees these things. Jerusalem in this world is described in some of the most charged terms I think anything is in the entire novel. Jerusalem is described as "a city of blood and slogans painted on the wall, severed heads on telephone poles". It's a hotbed for religious and social infighting now without the chosen people.

It was, I would say, very difficult to read this novel in the back half in the face of Israel's ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. It became almost galling when, in the back of the book, after finishing it, there's direct reference to the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Orthodox Judaism and their chosen Messiah, Menachem Mendel Schneerson; you may be most familiar with him from all those tiktoks of jewish boys emerging from grates in New York City, because they were tunneling between two buildings underground to fulfill a proclamation regarding the return of Menachem. Chabad is one of the largest and openly evangelical Orthodox sects in the world.

The book has a great deal of love for Judaism, and for good reason; Chabon is Jewish, and his writing clearly shows a lot of love for the ritual, the day to day living of his people. It's hard to say if any of this is coming from a place of Zionism, knowing or unknowing; it's easy to paint someone with a brush they don't deserve, and I won't presume to know his mind from a novel published 17 years ago. But it feels truly, deeply infected by the idea of return even without an Israel to return to. I don't know what to do with that. I don't think it's my place to have something to say about it.

The climax of the novel is an afterthought; the plot succeeds, because the US government is bigger than Meyer could ever hope to stop, and never could have hoped to in the short time he had before it was all over. The Dome is bombed, and even after Messiah's death, the true believers in Sitka are in the streets, preparing to go home to Jerusalem. The plot goes on without its Messiah.

Ultimately, the core mystery isn't interesting, and you can't really solve it with the clues you're given; discovering the killer is solved by a chess problem you never could have solved, because you weren't actually ever given it until Meyer explains it to you once he works it out. But the world that was built to support that mystery, the city of Sitka and the world around it gives it life despite that. Despite the thing that started it all having been left behind by the passage of time, it lurches on anyway.

It's tough.

#Alexis Reads Books 2024

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nityarawal · 9 months ago

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4/4/2024

Prana

Morning Songs

That's A Lot Of 4's

4/4/2024

You Got A 4th For Me

Or We're You Just

Kidding Mommies

Didn't You Hear

Beyonce Crying

About 16 Cybertrucks

16 Chariots

Brahma

Inspired

Didn't You Hear

Beyonce Crying

No Mana

Her City Was

Flooded

No Prana

To Fly

How Can You Let

The Carbon Queen's

Molest

Our Children

Stardust

And Robot Us

They're Cold And

Calculating

Invitro Baes

Witchhunting

Clones

Need New Laws

For Mommies

At Court

Breeders At Large

For They've Martyred

Mastered Felonry

But That's Not God

Goddess Doesn't Gloat

Egotistical

Neither Does Real

Elon

Taylor

Britney

Or Beyonce

Queen B's Want To

Offer Cowgirl Diva

Services

Be A Bodyguard

Make More Beyonces

Poet Of Rumi

With Ma Army

Close Courts

But Not Robots

Of Us

For The Most Beautiful

Black Birds

That We've Seen

Live

Like 'Wild Elon'

In A Cage

For A Jewish Staffing

Agency

Does My Niece

Charlotte Barnes

Rawal

Manage The Beyonce

Brand

Does Charlotte

And Gay Bros

Decorate Space-X

And Help Bully

Elon Under His Desk

We're Not Worried

About The Monkeys

And Apes

We're Worried About

You

Ya' All Up In

The Air

Homeless

Like Bonobos

Practicing Medicine

On You

Breeding

Astronaut

Dissasters

Carbon Queen's

Selling The Likes

Of You

Endless Trafficking

So How You Gonna

Protect Me

How 'Ya Gonna

Deliver

My Babies

With Your

Pants On

How 'Ya Gonna

Be My Sister

When All Your

Jewish Attys

Just Want To "F"

Do You Love Me

More Mamma

Do You Love Me

Like A Sister

Do You Love Me

More Mamma

Agape Style

Could I Be An

Auntie

At Your Hearth

A Caretaker

Do You Love Me

More Mamma

Do You Trust Me

To Protect Your

Hearth

Journalist

'Cuz I'd Flash

The Beyonce

Card

All Day Long

And Jay Curatolo's

Eyes Will Roll

His Boss

P.D. Mathew

Robert's

And All His

Minions

Will Be So Inspired

When They Slap

That Junk Art

Wall

And Sing Your

Tunes

Of Apologies

To All

Officers Of

Yesteryear

Celebrated

Farewell

Jewish Attys Will

Build New Walls

Like The Slaves

Of Your Ancestors

But Their Won't

Be In Slavery

At All

For The Jewish Men

Cry On Their

Knees

Tripling Prices On

Real Estate

Discriminating

Racists

Begging

Forgive Us

"Others"

They Brand Us

Raiding Our Homes

Forgive Us

Tesla Is Swimming

In Floods

Beyonce's

Home

Under Water

She Claims

In Texas Hoe

Down

Forgive Us

Mamma

Why'd You Betray

Our VP

Why Wasn't She

Enough For Douggie

Elmhoff

Why'd You Betray

Beyonce

#Trumpleberry

Weren't American

Rockstars

Enough

You Had To Sell

As Robots

Missionising

World War 3

On Crack

Stormy Daniels'

On Plateau

Instead Of

Our "Dead" First

Lady

First Queen

Why'd You Need

A Ukranian

Baby Factory

Why'd The Jewish

Attys

Shame Their Glorious

Wives

Why'd They Sell Their

Daughters

On The Black Market

To Military

It's Not The Way

Of Our American

Girls'

You Came Here

Because You

Loved Us First

It's Not The Way

Of The American

Girls'

We're Prudes

Proud Prudes

Prudent Moms

Prudential Realtors

Investors

Mothers

Homesmart

Real Estate Moms

NAR

National Association

Of Realtors

If You Love Yourself

A "Natalie"

So Much

Than Learn To Honor

Her

Courts Took Her Man

On An Atty Con

He Wasn't Much

On His Own

She's The Broker

Black Swan

They Took Her Man

On An Atty Con

He Wasn't Much

On His Own

But He Was Her

Baby Daddy

Her Provider

She Entrusted

He Wasn't Much

We Yell Good Riddance

To Be Honest

We Want Our

White

Swans Back

Swimming

Free

And

Our Kids

And Jewish Attys

Clearly

Don't Deserve

Beyonce's

Goddesses

Sisterhood

Blessings

Peace,

Nitya Nella Davigo Azam Moezzi Huntley Rawal

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