#John Bering

[whatisonthemoon]

Danish Moonies and Far-Right Politics in the 80s

From anarchist newspaper Black Flag: For Anarchist Resistance (September 3, 1987)

In the autumn of 1986, some of the structures and methods of the extreme right were exposed. In Denmark, the government consists of various non-Socialist parties. To many within the socialist tendencies, the only alternative to this is a government of the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist People's Party (SF). To many bourgeois people, this combination would be a major threat to their society.

During 1986, a growing amount of letters in the press accused the leader of the SF of "Nazi-style leadership" and of being a member of the Nazi youth from 1941-1944. But what seemed to be a spontaneous flow of letters to the newspaper editors from "indignant citizens" turned out to be a secret campaign started by right-wing loonies in the provincial press.

The semi-secret organization which was behind the campaign was the "Society in Defense of Danish Democracy," which has about 150 members and an unknown number of sympathizers, including many former high-ranking military and police officers, home guards, and members of parliament. The Society pushes a mixture of anti-communism, religious fanaticism, and militarism.

It is based on small cells working more or less independently. Besides this, there are a number of sub-organizations that deal with more specialized subjects. Their main purpose is to fight communism and subversion. Behind every peace organization and 3rd world solidarity group they see the KGB. Therefore they like to call themselves ‘the mental Home Guard’.

Inside the real Home Guard, they have built a secret intelligence service made up of an unknown number of active Home Guards who have gathered information on left-wing activists. ‘The Society’ has close connections with the people behind the paper Aktion who also have files on ‘subversives’. The paper has already published a list with the names and addresses of leading members of the Trotskyist SAP (Socialist Workers Party—very little in common with the English SWP). But the Society also has its own mouthpiece, the paper ‘Facet’, to carry its propaganda against "the communist threat". This threat is from the leader of SF, to students working one day to gather money for schools in Nicaragua (56,000 students attended, approximately £500,000 was collected), and the World Peace Congress held in Copenhagen in the autumn of 1986 with backing by the World Peace Council (which also in our opinion was/is dominated by Moscow!).

PH Bering, President of 'the Society', is also a member of the Danish section of the Unification Church (UC) founded by the Messiah of anti-communism: Sun Myung Moon. PH Bering participates in Moonie meetings arranged by the so-called 'Professors World Peace Academy'. The Danish UC-section, also called the 'Tongil Family', is active on several church fronts fighting socialism within the Danish church.

In 1980, the first and only issue of their paper 'Realia' was published. Amongst other things, it recommended reading the books of American Richard Wurmbrand, who in one of his books tried to prove that Karl Marx was a Satanist! The last germ of the Danish Moon movement is the group 'Causa', who lecture on, among other things, security politics.

Back to the 'Society': in 1984, they published the book 'The False Gospel' - an attack on the 'World Council of Churches' because of its work against apartheid. The book was originally in English and supported by South Africa. Many members of the 'Society' have sleepless nights thinking about what would happen if the Blacks in SA came to power. Members are therefore to be found in 'Friends of South Africa, Israel, etc.', different soldiers' organizations, and in right-wing 'peace' organizations, often with conservative youth followers.

The 'Far-East correspondent' of the paper Facet, Erik Dissing, is also the head of the Danish division of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). In Denmark, these extreme right-wingers have organized a committee which seeks to get influential persons as members. The committee numbers lawyers, politicians (Erik Dissing himself is a representative of the Conservative Party in a local council), employers, etc. - about 180 in all. While WACL internationally and historically is known for its connections with Nazis, Latin-American death squads, and different terrorist organizations, the Scandinavian - and with it the Danish - section tries to keep the legal and respectable facade, still providing full anonymity for its 'venerable' members.

This doesn't take its share of building international fascism. At a conference in Dallas (USA) in 1985, they were told to help in the fundraising for uniforms for Nicaraguan contras. They only managed to get about £500 earmarked for the purchase of boots! The story doesn't tell if this little amount pleased the president of WACL-International, the ex-major general John Singlaub, who is one of the key persons in the grip of Americans agitating for financial and military help to the contras!

[henryskene]

Antihero | Fantastic Voyage | 2022

[ltwilliammowett]

The Bark "Morning Star" and the Brig "Alexander" cutting in, north of the Bering Strait by John Stobart (1929-2023)

[vintagerpg]

After Dark (1980) is a bit more robust of a story than Old Gods. John plays a few songs at a strange folk music festival and gets himself mixed up in a plot by the shonokins to, in effect, begin an attempt to take over the United States. They’re an odd creation, previously appearing in stories about Wellman’s New York City occultist, John Thunstone. They’re sort of North America’s answer to the Fae or Formori — they claim to have inhabited the continent before humans crossed the Bering straight. They can’t bear the presence of corpses of their own kind, exert control over something similar to Ley lines and live in Gardinels, giant carnivorous plants that camouflage themselves as houses.

Again, the action is sort of vague and low stakes. The shonokins, led by creepily charismatic Brooke Altic (Wellman had a talent for oddball names), want the land a friend of John’s owns and they make several offers to buy it or otherwise convince the owner to leave, before attacking it with magic. But thanks to John’s own Christian folk magic (found in the very real grimoire, The Long-Lost Friend, a copy of which John keeps in his pocket) and the battlefield conversion of a black magic-wielding witch, the good folks of Appalachia win the day.

It’s hard to convey why these bold, broad stroked novels are so good, but they are. Its the characters, they way they chatter about, the cadence of their voices, the unpretentious way they live (Wellman lived in and loved North Carolina for years). It’s also the way they transpose events better suited for fantasy or horror stories into 1960s rural America, and the way that changes the feel of the action. And John. He’s so good. He’s just a lovable guy. Reading these books, you know you’ve got a friend in him, especially if you ever run afoul of witches and warlocks.

Cover by Michael Flanagan — I love how designy this one is.

[mangoguy]

Displacement (1/2)

John "Soap" McTavish(2009) x Reader x John "Soap" McTavish(2022)

Warnings: Mention of Modern Warfare 3 (2011), Some fluff, they/them used once other than that no pronouns are used.

You recall your relationship with your John while in the hospital.

Another entry For @glitterypirateduck Soap It Up challenge!

This was heavily inspired by the Multiverse AU by shotmrmiller. It's been on my mind for a while lol

"Right, what the hell kind of name is 'Soap', eh? How'd a muppet like you pass selection?"

You heard Price state, looking up from cleaning your gun you saw the new guy who was set to join. Fresh faced and ready for battle, you wondered how long that would last. You watched as he passed the C.Q.B with a pretty average time, but he passed nonetheless. After that Price quickly briefed the team on the mission, infiltrating and assaulting a cargo ship in the Bering Strait. He dismissed us to get ready, deciding you wanted to try and get to know the new guy. You walked over to him and fell into step with him. 

You remember it wasn’t hard to get him to open up, which was surprising, most of the guys here were not up for much conversion. After a while, you decided to ask the biggest question on your mind, you asked him about his hair. 

“Why did you decide on a mohawk?” You heard him huff.  

“Because it was cool…” He mumbled.

"I love ye, y'know that right?"

You could faintly hear Captain McTavish mumble those words under his breath but the sound of the helicopter made you wonder if you heard it at all. What affirmed that it was indeed said out loud was when he took his hand in yours, rubbing his thumb over the back of your hand in a soothing gesture. Who he was comforting, you weren't sure, but you had an inkling it was to ground himself. 

You recall It was his first mission as captain and if he was nervous he sure as hell didn’t show it. But you knew him, he often sought some small physical contact as comfort when he was nervous. 

It's funny how you remember these things.

You also remember his first mission as captain went off without a hitch, of course, there were hiccups but like he promised nothing happened to you. It was oddly sweet in its own way, he knew you could take care of yourself but he often fretted sometimes (even if he didn't entirely show it).

Another moment you recall with John McTavish was when you two were outside. He was smoking and you were just keeping him company. It was a nice evening, a bit cold but nothing you couldn't handle. You two were talking about anything and everything as you two normally do. Then the topic of living together came up.

"Y'know... I've been thinking after all this is over we need to... do couples things" he chuckled.

"Oh yeah? Like what? I thought fighting in battlefields was good date material," you joked.

"Ah, that's gettin' old... we could get our own place," he suggested. 

"Get our own place? What are you suggesting?" You turned to look at him, he was already looking at you with a grin.

"Aye, I'm sayin' we should live together once this is all over and done with, I'm thinkin' out in the fields near a small town, just the two of us," he stubbed out his smoke before leaning against you. He wrapped an arm around your waist and brought you closer. 

"Hm, that sounds wonderful... We could get a cat... maybe two so the other one wouldn't be lonely," you suggested, planting a kiss on his lips as you both thought about this fantasy. You'll never forget the way his cheeks turned a bit rosy after that. 

Though before house buying the one important thing on John's 'Couples things' list was getting married. Of course, you both talked extensively about it, making sure it was something you both were on the same page on. The ceremony wasn't anything special, just you, John, and a few friends and family to celebrate at John's Parents' house. It was a sweet time, filled with talking and laughing (Ghost and Roach were both raiding the snacks John's mom made). 

"Look at you, my little brother gettin' married! Never thought I see the day, thought you were married to the military life for a sec," John's sister teasingly bumped his shoulder. Though she was teasing, she seemed pretty proud and happy for him. 

"Aye, never thought I get so lucky, knew I wanted to marry them 6 months in but didn't want to scare them," John chuckled while wrapping an arm around your waist. You just rolled your eyes and nudged his rib, and he responded by pinching your hip before kissing your cheek.

But things didn't turn out like you both planned. Luck had to run out someday.

'I won't let anything happen to you,' rings in your head, he never failed to mention it before missions you both went on.

Is that why you were here?

You weren't sure how to explain it. One moment you were with John and Yuri, in that building, something went off and you woke up with someone looming over you.. before it all went black again.

You felt like you were in a different body, and you say that loosely since it still felt like you but a bit younger, less tense. You weakly opened your eyes, the blaring lights of the hospital flooding your vision. You groaned, wincing away for a moment before it felt safe to look again. The bed you were lying on was much softer than the ones back on base.

"Ah, you're awake," you saw a nurse to your left side checking your vitals, she gave you a reassuring smile.

"You were out for a while, almost two months! Had some bloke worried sick about you... Johnny, I think his name was," she started explaining. You never really heard people refer to John as Johnny but whatever at least you knew he was alive.

“Is he okay?” You rushed to ask.

“Yes he’s fine, was discharged a while ago, you were the one to take the most of the damage,” She paused to resume her work.

“Actually he should be coming back soon, doesn’t leave your side unless he needs the restroom, you definitely have a good one,” She chuckled.

Oh, thank god he was okay.

The nurse left you to rest after and you started mulling over what happened.

An explosion happened, you were falling alongside Yuri when it happened. But you couldn't remember much else.

You began to feel uneasy, like you lost a big part of yourself and yet you couldn't explain why. Which was weird considering the nurse just confirmed he was, in fact, relatively okay. While you were mulling it over some more you didn't hear the door opening and the sound of hurried footsteps rushing over to your bed.

"Yer awake!" 

You whipped your head up to see your husband, so grateful he was okay. You were almost ready to jump on him but you froze when your eyes finally landed on him. What looked like John, though he was a mildly younger version of him. He was a bit shorter than your John as well, along with sounding vastly different. 

That was definitely not your John.

He looked worried and relieved at you. Placing a hand on yours but also trying not to hover around you, you noticed a tattoo on his right arm, John didn’t have an arm tattoo. He decided to just sit down on the chair that was pushed near your hospital bed. Not knowing what to do you took your hand out of his and placed it on your stomach. 

That’s when you noticed your simple wedding band was gone.

Replaced with one that had a pearl and a few diamonds.

Whose ring was this?

You were confused and dare you say scared. Scared more than you ever have been in your life and that's saying a lot considering your line of work. But where exactly were you? 

"Yer looking at me like ye don't know me, Bonnie," the man broke the silence. 

But you didn't know him, you assumed this was the bloke the nurse mentioned.

Johnny. 

Wearing the face of your John.

Just what exactly happened?

Words: 1,347

Reblogs and comments are appreciated!

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 4 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

John

he’s a priest. he can punch your lights out. he would never hurt a fly. he has connections in the black market. he gives everything he can to the local orphans. he will not hesitate to play pranks on you. he wants everyone to be happy. he has daddy issues probably. he wants a promotion sososososoooooo bad.

I accidentally submitted the last 5actors name but it’s the same guy

Hey everyone please vote for this man I love him he truely is what we need more of in this world the kindest most relatable character has flaws etc etc. Deserves the world

Enrico propaganda

He grew up in the church and became a priest. so devoted to his faith he ended the UNIVERSE to achieve the perfect world aka heaven

Hes Catholic but also so gay for this one vampire that he ended the world for him

He is LITERALLY one big metaphor for the catholic church as a villain. He’s a guy who believes himself to be a martyr on a fundamentally altruistic quest that will better humanity and the world, but in truth hes a destructive force blind to his faults and hypocritical of the atrocities he commits. Even his altruisim is just a lie (that he does believe himself though) because it all just stems from a deep rooted desire he has to alliviate the guilt he feels. Also hes obsessed with ”the world to come” to the point that hes downright nihilistic towards the current world he actually lives in, as well as the other people in it. which i mean. lol. Ultimately hes an insane delusional queen and he should win this because he is just That catholic. also he is a catholic priest :)

his names pussy bc he served cunt (in a catholic god honoring way)

I want my bestie’s guy in bere

No one could feel guilt to this level if not catholic

Religious Allegory mostly woth how his power(white snake) is contradictory it has white to make you think of good things but it contrast with snake a creature that tempted adam and eve. Although he is a Man of faith his stand’s design is far from it being incredibly intimidating and lined with the genetic of dna whihc is scientific compared to faith.

Bro tries to kill a child

serial killer priest bro

HE IS INSANE He spent his whole life believing in fate and when his world turned around Shakespeare tragedy style he made it his mission to bring 「HEAVEN TO EARTH」, which means TEARING AWAY THE FABRIC OF REALITY SO THAT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THEIR OWN FATE. How does he get there? Simple! By using a half-baked horse to SPEED UP TIME UNTIL THE UNIVERSE RESETS AND LAUNCHES EVERYONE INTO A NEW WORLD. How did he GET this horse??? Oh, as one does - his (dead) best friend’s toe bone grew into a baby made of leaves that vored him, but he survived and grew even more eyebrows than he already had. And that’s without getting into the STUFF that makes him a phenomenal, S-tier, fine wine that EXPLODES and causes you to see VISIONS type of character. That’s just the surface. But, ah, that’s Catholics for ya. Vote Enrico Pucci for king of the Catholic tournament. 👍🏻

[secretpostsposts]

A yonko is a Emperor of the sea. Only 4 Pirates at a time can take such a title after being declared high class threats by the world government with bounties of 2 billion or more. In one piece, the first 4 yonkos at the start of the series were whitebeard, shanks, kaido, and big mom. Whitebeard and big mom are dead, and we don't know whether kaido is dead yet. The current yonkos so far in the series are buggy, blackbeard, luffy, and shanks who still holds the his title.

Say instead of branch being shanks, maybe he's whitebeard. Whitebeard was considered the strongest pirate in the world, having been on par with Roger. Whitebeard died in the marineford war, suffering 267 sword wounds, 152 gun shots, and 46 connon balls, less than half of his head was burned off and there was a hole burned into his chest and stomach. Even with the fatal injuries, he was still the strongest one present. He died only when he sucomed to his injuries after delivering the best death speech ever. He died stand straight up, not even death could bring him to his knees.

What if branch was whitebeard at marineford, and all of the other brothers were present to the war. And the watch as branch completely destroys the entire island leaving nothing be a bere and destroyed environment, crush thousands of marines including literal giants, relieve hundreds of fatal wound but remaining mostly unfazed, speak true words against the world government, and die standing proud with not a single scar on his back to show that he never ran from battle. How would the brothers take the situation during and after the war?

Does Whitebeard die?

IT'S DYING!

You just spoiled it for me, what the hell, I'm not going to kill Branch.

But I had to watch part of that episode to understand the fight and, I cried, I don't know the character but I cried ugly.

So let's put it like this.

Pirates: Captain John Dory and Bruce (who joined John when he found out that there would be a war between pirates and marines that would indicate that his little brother Yonko would be there, so when he saw John's ship, Rhonda, decided to join, and knows fighting and all that so it's okay)

Marine: Lieutenant (or a high rank, I don't know, sorry) Clay and Senior Cadet Floyd (they managed to save Floyd from the V&V Ship, Branch was there and made it clear to them that he didn't want them around, but you know, they didn't listen to them, Floyd is under Clay's charge, so they are on the same Ship, although they are more worried about their pirate brothers than their own men, especially their brother Yonko)

So they are a mixture of proud, terrified, worried and bloodthirsty for whoever shot their baby brother.

Branch has bullets in his body, countless open wounds and possible internal bleeding, and he is still fighting, he does not turn his back on the battle, he helps the wounded and protects his crew.

John is impressed, but also worried, his little brother is losing a lot of blood, he could die, and if he dies, what would they do without his brother, he wants to apologize for so many things, but he won't see his brother die.

Even if Branch doesn't want them, they will fight by his side, I would kill for him and die for him.

On the other hand, Clay and Floyd want to catch Branch, they want him to be with them, but they know that if they capture him they would sentence him to death, so even though they hate that their soldiers attack their little brother (he is going to get revenge, Clay has a list of those who managed to shoot Branch, and he is going to make sure they pay for that), can only suffer in silence while their little brother is wounded by his troops.

I hope I have been able to answer correctly

[irregularincidents]

A surprisingly consistent thing in history is people coming up with plans involving enormous construction projects that are intended to have a short-term positive impact, which when looked at from both a modern perspective, would have enormously bad environmental impacts globally.

One such proposed plan came from the Soviet Union, where Derek Mead recounts how they at one point wished to melt the Arctic.

In an article for Motherboard, they wrote:

You might laugh, but while Soviet Russia was blessed with the largest land mass of any nation on Earth, much of it resource rich, putting that land to use was stunningly difficult. …Russia was already spending an enormous amount of money combating the ice. Exploiting the vast petroleum reserves of the Arctic and Siberia was crucial to the growth of the Soviet economy, but every well pitted far-flung men against frozen earth and wind.

This meant that in order to exploit the resources they felt they required to properly compete with the USA, they needed to thaw Siberia. This is where a Soviet scientist named Petr Mikhailovich Borisov comes into the picture.

Borisov proposed building a 55-mile long dam that stretched from Russia to Alaska across the Bering Strait, potentially one of the largest, most expensive projects in history, with the intention of blocking the flow of cold water into the Arctic from the Pacific so the warm water from the Atlantic would over time cause the temperature in the Arctic to rise, thus melting the ice cap.

As bananas as this plan is, Mead contends that it nearly had America's support in the project, much the same way that the surprisingly similar plan to do the same in the 1800s did (albeit, that being an American plan to raise the temperature in America and Canada while freezing Europe).

Borisov dreamed of enlisting the US, Canada, Japan, and Northern Europe in the plan, as all would theoretically benefit from a warmer climate. Surprisingly, the US was intrigued by the idea. In fact, in a response to a series of questions sent in 1960 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to presidential candidates Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, Senator Kennedy noted, as part of a larger point about the value of innovation in fostering cooperation, that the Siberia-Alaska dam was “certainly worth exploring.”

Amusingly this wasn't the only plan in this period to melt the Arctic as British scientist Julian Huxley, a cofounder of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), spoke at a conference in Madison Square Garden in 1945 about using nuclear bombs as “atomic dynamite [for] landscaping the Earth” (melting the polar ice cap).

Some have commented that considering the then recent bombings of Japan by the US this was in bad taste, but considering there were people who worked in the US government who repeatedly argued for "tactical" nuclear weapons usage (Henry Kissinger being one of them), I think that if there was enough public support behind it someone might have actually considered it.

[silkenbutterfly7]

We will see the North American Mainland within a fortnight...

How could Sir Franklin so confidently say they would see the North American Mainland within a fortnight in the show? Thoughts on what they were going to do when they found the Passage.

I find it so difficult to imagine that Sir John could be impossibly overconfident to promise the North West Passage within 2 weeks of sailing when they had already spent a year just getting to the top of Prince William Land (Island.) I mean, didn't their basic Canadian maps have some sort of distance scaling on them? There were scenes of Fitzjames and Crozier trying to calibrate distance with compasses. It showcases Sir John's "act of hubris they may not survive" and feels like such an instance of plunging headlong into disaster (it makes me FEEL the CRINGE.)

And what did the crew think about that rousing speech at the end of episode 1, only to be stuck in the ice for another winter. That seems like it would have bred deep resentment and the first stirrings of distrust in leadership and thoughts of mutiny.

At the last scene when Sir John is ordering the officers to be "all good cheer" there is hesitation until Fitzjames nods in agreement and looks at the officers as if they are still in disbelief at Sir John's proud, stupid blundering. Then the last glance at Crozier (obviously too far away to see his face from Erebus) but the zoom-in for the viewer, showing that he knows he was right and the worst is yet to come.

In the real-life letters mailed from Greenland, Fitzjames mentions sailing to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) or Valparaiso on the coast of Chile. Hickey says he thought he was getting a trip to Hawaii! That's like 2000 miles from the Bering Strait across the open Pacific. Terror and Erebus were icebreakers, heavy & slow, not built for long voyages across the ocean. They had to be towed up past Scotland to Greenland by barges. By what miracle did they expect to sail through the Bering Strait, past the stormy Aleutian Islands, and down to Hawaii?

Crozier sailed (in real life) with James Clark Ross from England to Tasmania (where Sir John was a governor) and then to Antarctica on the previous expedition and it took them an 11-month voyage. So how did the Admiralty think that 3 years' provisions were enough to see the Franklin Expedition through the North West Passage, down to Hawaii, and then across the globe back to England again? They must have some plan to stop and take on fresh provisions and resupply (I would hope.) The whole logistics of the expedition seems ill-planned and just doomed from the outset. Even if the Goldner's cans had not been tainted with lead or spoiled, would they even have had enough provisions to get to Hawaii or Valparaiso without starving? Were they just hoping to shoot enough birds and seals on the coast of Alaska to feed 129 men for months?

The hubris of the leadership, and the trust of the crew following them, just destroys me. :(

[asrisgratitudejournal]

Buku part 2

Haaaaaaaaa. Sudah selesai weekend minggu ini sodara-sodara dan sekarang sudah 22 (23 sekarang, itu draft semalam) September?? Wtf. Ku masih ada hutang mau ngelanjutin tulisan ya tentang buku ini.

Berhubungan dengan itu adalah: aku baru saja menyelesaikan 2 buku di beberapa hari belakang: Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee dan Poison for Breakfast-nya Lemony Snicket yang keluar 2021! Both were delights to read. Dua-duanya genrenya fiksi tapi yang satu fiksi totok betul-betul penuh hiburan dan penuh imajinasi, while satunya sangat… filosofis dan BANYAK banget bikin belajar tentang literature.

Ku pernah cerita di sini: https://www.tumblr.com/asrisgratitudejournal/758711603506135040/library?source=share pas ku beli si Miye Lee itu dan beneran emang lambat banget bacanya karena ku gak nemu waktu yang tepat untuk duduk dan focus baca aja sih. Terus yang Lemony Snicket terpicu dari recent twitter trend: ku menemukan foto bookshelf orang dengan buku-buku Snicket jadi kepo “dia gak ngeluarin buku baru kah recently?”. Ternyata ada! Di 2021! Awalnya tentu saja search di library dulu biar gak usah beli kan, tapi ternyata gaada di library. Search di google ternyata ada di Blackwell’s Westgate, dan cuma £7 pulak, jadi yaudah sikat deh habis pulang dari lab ke situ dulu.

Jujur kalau mau digali lagi waktu minggu lalu teh mau nulis apa tentang buku juga ga inget sekarang. OH! Bahas siapa aja yang kubaca dulu dan gimana awal mulanya ku senang baca. Pas lagi bahas sama Puspa dan Oliv tentang betapa bersyukurnya kita sekarang hidup di jaman kita bisa baca buku tulisan cewek, ku langsung mencoba nginget-nginget aku teh dulu baca siapa aja ya… kayanya standar anak kelahiran 90-an:

Esti Kinasih (Fairish WKWKW itu keluaran 2004, terus ada juga CEWEK!!! keluaran 2005); Dealova by Dian Nuranindya, terus dari situ kayanya langsung ke Tere Liye(?). SEMUA novel dia tuh ku beli dari Daun yang Jatuh, Hapalan solat Delisa, dst. Mulai berhenti kayanya pas kuliah. Terus juga sempat ada periode Andrea Hirata. Kayanya yang orang Indo udah sih itu doang.

Yang terjemahan tentu saja: Harry Potter (mama yang pertama kali beliin bawa dari kantor karena fomo ceunah wkwk), terus Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent (semuanya penulis cewek). Oh! Sama tentu saja Lemony Snicket. Dulu hype banget asli dah. Semua orang di sekolah keknya baca atau kalau ada orang yang pas istirahat baca itu tuh kek keren banget gitu dan ku jadi mau pinjem. Sempat ada periode ku suka minjem buku random juga deh kayanya di perpus SMP, cerita-cerita rakyat gitu. Ku inget banget sampe pernah ada fase ku nabung sehari 3ribu apa ya, buat ngumpulin duit pre-order Harry Potter 7. Keluar Januari 2008. Itu aku kelas 12 SMA, mau UN malah baca Harry Potter.... Untuk anak SMA buku 270ribu tu mahal banget (sekarang pun masih terasa mahal). Itu dulu mahal karena hard-cover kayanya. Ku betulan yang dateng ke Gramedia matraman ngangkot beres sekolah sore2 terus jalan ke counter: “mbak, saya mau pre-order buku Harry Potter ini ya…”. Ku lupa bayarnya kayanya pas ngambil bukunya deh.

Baca Pulang-nya Leila S. Chudori boleh minjem punya mantanku dulu pas kuliah dan dia juga yang ngerekomendasiin. Terus pas kuliah udah deh tu ilang aja hobi bacanya. Masih baca tipis-tipis sih tapi tipis banget dibandingkan pas SMA, waktu itu lagi eranya YA (Young Adult) yang sangat sarat dengan mental health awareness, youth identity (LGBTQ+ and race being people of color etc), police brutality, social justice: John Green, Nicola Yoon, Jennifer Niven, Rainbow Rowell, David Levithan, Angie Thomas. Kayanya itu periode ku mulai transisi ke baca novel Bahasa inggris juga. Di Bandung untungnya ada Periplus Setiabudi, jadi ku suka banget ke sana. Itu juga jaman-jaman udah punya uang lebih dari ngajar olim, jadi kadang kalau lagi pulang ke Jakarta bakal ke Kinokuniya, Aksara kemang, sama ke Periplus juga. Harga buku Bahasa inggris YA ini dulu mungkin di range 150-250ribu kali ya.

Karena mahal, jadinya tidak bisa sering-sering beli bukunya. Sehingga di periode kuliah, ku jadi lebih suka nonton, dan emang dulu itu jamannya ngopi-ngopian film/series dari hard-disk gitu loh inget gak. Sama piratebay wkwkwk. Betul-betul 0 rupiah. Oh sama ada juga FTP ITB yang semua orang bisa download filem atau mp3 di situ. Dulu series yang ditonton ada: Heroes, Game of Thrones jelas, Revenge, Pretty Little Liars (OMG), House of Cards, Veep, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Teen Wolf(!!!), Sherlock, The Flash (awal-awal season doang nontonnya), Glee!!!, Empire, Gossip Girl, Mr. Robot, Master of None, Korra, Brooklyn 99, Orange Is The New Black, Westworld, mencoba nonton Breaking Bad tapi nggak nyangkut.

Tapi ku emang berprivilege seprivilege-privilegednya sih dalam hal baca (dan buku)… yang dari dulu tiap hari Kamis pulang kantor pasti mama beliin Bobo. Dari belom bisa baca pun di kasur dibacain cerita. Terus pas udah agak gedean, mama papaku langganan Kompas setiap hari dan di hari Minggu tuh ada Kompas anak. Di rumah juga papaku suka banget beli buku-buku Islam, ngelihat itu aku pun tumbuh besar menjadi anak yang “Oh membaca itu penting yah”. Pas mudik ke rumah mama di Klaten, di rak buku ada novel-novel Mira W. buanyaaak banget. Kayanya dulu ada 1 atau 2 yang kuhabisin pas lagi di periode lebaran itu. Jadi, ya memang budaya aja sih. Dan baca-baca reply twitter kemarin ya kesadar aja, oh belum semua orang seberuntung aku yah dalam hal ini. Bahkan punya teman-teman yang suka baca juga penting banget! Ada pulak yang cerita kalau dia malah dikata-katain kalau suka baca. Buset.

Aku dari dulu mimpinya cuma satu: punya rumah baca sendiri. Bisa bikin buat anak-anak/orang dewasa pun, bisa baca, senang baca. Dulu tuh masih ada rental buku gitu, di belakang stasiun Duren Kalibata, sama seberang pombensin volvo PasMing. Sekarang modelan gini masih ada kah? Dulu harganya se-buku 3000/minggu apaya buat minjem, murah banget kok. Dan bisa baca di tempat juga kalau mau. Kalau perpus-perpus yang hype di Jakarta kaya di Cikini dan Perpusnas medan merdeka gitu koleksinya ok kah? Ku pernah sih sekali ke perpusnas tapi jatohnya cuma buat liat-liat aja bukan baca. Sebetulnya di tempat kerja di UI juga ok sih perpusat tapi ak malah gak pernah masuk ke perpusatnya. Nanti deh ngecek kalau udah pulang.

Sejak tinggal di Oxford apa yah, tapi library tuh betul-betul tempat favoritku banget sih. Dulu pas di ITB masalahnya library tu lebih ke “tempat nongkrong TPB” dan agak bikin PTSD karena belajar ujian TPB semua di situ kan, jadi setelah Tingkat 2 udah boro-boro masuk ke perpus lagi. Kalo pas S2, bibliothèque-nya di basement jadi gaada sinar matahari masuk terus jadinya moodnya suram gitu, jadi malas deh.

Udah kayanya mau sampai situ dulu aja reminiscent tentang baca bukunya. Kalau sekarang, ku lagi suka banget eksplor penulis-penulis cewek tapi yang non-american/british dan non-white (karena sekarang ceritanya dah bisa Bahasa inggris jadi lebih gede options pool-nya). Gaktau kenapa sih, gaada alasan khusus, tapi kayanya di reading scene (di barat) pun, emang lagi banyak dinaikin penulis-penulis People of Colour/BAME ini? Ku terakhir baca Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie yang Americanah (bagus banget ku sangat merekomendasi). Dia Nigerian, jadi fresh banget diction/vocab yang dibawa. Terus ku bisa relate juga dalam hal privilege, economy background, culture-nya si characters karena Nigeria dan Indonesia mirip-mirip lah ya negara berkembangnya. Terus ada RF Kuang yang super hits 2 tahun belakangan, walaupun ku belum baca Babel sih… tapi Yellowface udah. Bernardine Evaristo. Penulis-penulis Jepang/Korea (translated dari Bahasa mereka ke English). Udah sih. Dolly Alderton palingan. Sisanya ku juga baca non-fiction tapi gak semenarik itu jadi malas kubahas. Komik juga dulu ku baca sampai di rumah ada koleksi Detective Conan, Doraemon, dan hai Miiko yang lumayan komplit.

Paling aneh dari ini semua, setelah ku-scroll lagi ke atas adalah: aku sekarang into kpop… jujur aneh banget.

Dah sekian dulu nge-rant-nya mau kembali bekerja. Buh-bye!

23 September 2024 18:01 flat 39 hujan seharian jadi di rumah aja

[focsle]

how common was scurvy aboard whaling vessels?

Oh bless, this will swerve me from the pit of hypochondria I was burying myself in (I'm not being sarcastic! This pulls me, temporarily, from the pit! At least I don't have scurvy! It's so easily avoidable!)

Scurvy was very common on whalers.

When naval Lieutenant Charles Wilkes came across the whaleship America in 1839, he said of it,

"I have seldom seen at sea a more uncombed and dirty set of mariners than his crew. How they preserve any tolerable state of health I know not, and it is not at all surprising that the ravages of scurvy should be felt on board of some vessels belonging to the whaling fleet, if this is the usual state in which they are kept."

John Martin, of the Lucy Ann, 1840s wrote of "In the evening, dancing cotillions and jumping the rope to keep off the scurvey". It didn't seem to do much. Within two weeks he wrote:

"One man on the sick list, supposed to be caused by his being so long at sea. All hands are complaining of soreness throughout their bodies. If we do not get on shore soon, we may expect to have half the crew down with the scurvey at least. We have no vegetables on board, and are going into King Georges Sound, New Holland [soutwest tip of Australia], a place where we can scarcely get anything to recruit with."

Given that a whaleships spent extended time at sea and were loathe to waste too much time with anchoring somewhere, fresh food ran low quite often. When whaling in the Atlantic and South Pacific whalers usually fared okay, as there were a fair number of provision stops in locations that had fresh fruits and vegetables readily available for trade. It was on said provisions stops that whalers could also, as said by Samuel Wood of the Bowditch, 1849, take a walk to 'knock the scurvey from their bones'.

In seasons that took place up north however, in the Sea of Okhotsk (Kamchatka Sea), Bering Strait, and eventually up into the Arctic, scurvy was extremely prevalent. The fresh food depleted, the ice was always a threat, and unlike other regions there weren't many accessible places to resupply with foods that could ward off scurvy. It's in reading journals during these periods that I find the most complaints of scurvy. And sometimes, the more successful the voyage was, the sicker the men would get because they'd spend more time up there rather than giving up and returning south.

The US Consul in Hawaii made note of this in the 1840s, saying:

"Whaleships were much more successful in taking oil on the North West during the last summer and fall than for three or four seasons previous and most of the vessels remained on the fishing grounds much longer than usual, the consequence of which was that many of the crews were severely afflicted with scurvy, some died after reaching port and before they could be landed, while others were carried to the hospital on litters, being too feeble to walk."

Another US consular officer in Hawaii mentioned the issue of Northwest seasons being taxing to the health too. In the overfishing of whales, it led to a push further and further North, and thus the complaints of scurvy increased.

The Sperm whale rapidly disappeared before the increasing fleet, and in a short time most of the vessels abandoned their pursuit for the whale on the North West Coast. Constant exposure to the cold and fogs of that region soon injured the health of the men and seriously impaired the constitution of many.

In 1844, 1845, and 1846 but more particularly the last two years, a large proportion of the vessels were unsuccessful in taking oil, and when they arrived here in the fall of 1846 they had a large number on the sick list who were obliged to be placed in the Hospitals. With few exceptions the crews were restless and discontented, many had been on board two years or more, and instead of diminishing the debts which stood against them at the time of sailing they had been compelled to add to them in order to supply themselves with necessary clothing— All the hopes and expectations excited by the Agents had been bloated. They were disgusted with the occupation and determined at all hazards to leave their vessels. They would resort to any and every means to procure their discharge. Failing in this, many deserted. If caught in time to be placed on board of their vessels, they would threaten to burn the ship or do some other act to prevent their proceeding the voyage, saying that they would sooner die than go to the North West again, and in many cases Masters ceased to have any control over their crews.

The US Consul was largely concerned with sick (and/or disillusioned) men coming to Hawaii, and then never leaving OR having to have their passage paid back by the government (rather than being forced to ship on another whaler, which was what the Consul's usual method was).

For all that, there were attempts on board made to ward off scurvy. In addition to the exercise John Martin mentioned, he also said the captain allowed unlimited vinegar and free access to the potato pen, ordering them to eat raw potatoes and vinegar to try and hold off scurvy. The vinegar, a mistaken remedy due to its acidity, wouldn't have helped much. Potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, more so when they're raw, though eating large quantities raw probably also made those lads have some sad feeling guts.

John King, a rare whaleship doctor on the Aurora, 1837, also had his own remedies:

"13. Salts of Lemon This is good in scurvy when fresh fruit and vegetables can not be obtained. A teaspoonful dissolved in half a pint of water will form an acid nearly the strength of lime juice. It may be mixed with water and taken freely, sweetened or not. [it makes a good substitute for lemonade, in fever, to allay thirst in fever] Water made slightly acidic with it is a good substitute for lemonade to allay thirst in fever."

Okay that's enough, bedtime, thank you!

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Saturday, April 13, 2024

march 31_april 13

SAINT INNOCENT OF MOSCOW, ENLIGHTNER OF ALASKA ANS SIBERIA (1879)

Icon written by hieroscemamonk Ephrem.

Our father among the saints Innocent of Alaska, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Enlightener of North America (1797-1879), was a Russian Orthodox priest, bishop, archbishop, and Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia. He is known for his missionary work, scholarship, and leadership in Alaska and the Russian Far East during the 1800s. He is known for his great zeal for his work as well as his great abilities as a scholar, linguist, and administrator. He was a missionary, later a bishop and archbishop in Alaska and the Russian Far East. He learned several native languages and was the author of many of the earliest scholarly works about the natives and their languages, as well as dictionaries and religious works in these languages. He also translated parts of the Bible into several native languages.

St. Innocent, né Ivan (John) Evseyevich Popov-Veniaminov, was born on August 26, 1797, into the family of a church server in the village of Anginskoye, Verkholensk District, Irkutsk province, in Russia. His father died when John was six.

In 1807, John entered the Irkutsk Theological Seminary. In 1817 he married, and on May 18, 1817 he was ordained deacon of the Church of the Annunciation in Irkutsk. He completed his studies in 1818. He was appointed a teacher in a parish school, and on May 18, 1821 he was ordained priest to serve in the Church of the Annunciation.

At the beginning of 1823, Bishop Michael of Irkutsk received instructions to send a priest to the island of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Father John Veniaminov volunteered to go, and on May 7, 1823, he departed from Irkutsk, accompanied by his aging mother, his wife, his infant son Innocent, and his brother Stefan. After a difficult one-year journey, they arrived at Unalaska on July 29, 1824.

After John and his family built and moved into an earthen hut, he undertook the construction of a church on the island and set about studying the local languages and dialects. He trained some of his parishioners in construction techniques and with them undertook the construction of a church, which was finished the following July.

Father John's parish included the island of Unalaska and the neighboring Fox Islands and Pribilof Islands, whose inhabitants had been converted to Christianity before his arrival, but retained many of their pagan ways and customs. Father John often traveled between the islands in a canoe, battling the stormy Gulf of Alaska.

His travels over the islands greatly enhanced Father John Veniaminov's familiarity with the local dialects. In a short time he mastered six of the dialects. He devised an alphabet of Cyrillic letters for the most widespread dialect, the Unagan dialect of Aleut and, in 1828, translated the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew and other church materials into that dialect, which were eventually published in 1840 with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1829, he journeyed to the Bering Sea coast of the Alaskan mainland and preached to the people there. In 1836, his travels even extended to the south, to the Ross Colony north of San Francisco and to the Spanish missions of northern California. At Ross Colony he conducted services at its small, wooden chapel.

In 1834, Father John was transferred to Sitka Island, to the town of Novoarkhangelsk, later called Sitka. He devoted himself the Tlingit people and studied their language and customs. His studies there produced the scholarly works Notes on the Kolushchan and Kodiak Tongues and Other Dialects of the Russo-American Territories, with a Russian-Kolushchan Glossary.

In 1838, Father John journeyed to St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, and Kiev, Ukraine, to report on his activities and request an expansion of the Church's activities in Russian America. While he was there, he received notice that his wife had died. He requested permission to return to Sitka. Instead, it was suggested that he take vows as a monk. Father John at first ignored these suggestions, but, on November 29, 1840, made his vows. He chose the name Innocent in honor of Bishop Innocent of Irkutsk.

On December 15, 1840, Archimandrite Innocent Veniaminov was consecrated Bishop of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands in Russia and the Aleutian Islands in Russian America. His see was located in Novoarkhangelsk, which he returned to in September 1841. He spent the next nine years in the administration of his see as well as on several long missionary journeys to its remote areas. On April 21, 1850, Bishop lnnocent was elevated to Archbishop. In 1852, the Yakut area was admitted to the Kamchatka Diocese, and in September 1853, Archbishop Innocent took up permanent residence in the town of Yakutsk. Innocent took frequent trips throughout his enlarged diocese. He devoted much energy to the translation of the scriptures and service books into the Yakut (Sakha) language.

In April 1865, Archbishop Innocent was appointed a member of the Holy Governing Synod of the Church.

On November 19, 1867, he was appointed the Metropolitan of Moscow, replacing his friend and mentor, Filaret, who had died. While there, he undertook revisions of many Church texts that contained errors, raised funds to improve the living conditions of priests and established a retirement home for priests.

Innocent died on March 31, 1879. He was buried on April 5, 1879, at Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.

Source: St Innocent Church

VENERABLE HYPATIUS, MONK HEALER OF THE KIEV CAVE (14th.c.)

Saint Hypatius the Healer of the Caves, attained glory through his severe fasting and prayerful vigilance. By night he stood at prayer, slept very little, and ate only bread and water.

Saint Hypatius devoted himself entirely to the service of the sick, and received from God the gift of healing. Those sick with various illnesses often hastened to his prayerful intercession.

The memory of Saint Hypatius is celebrated also on August 28, on the Synaxis of the Saints of the Far Caves.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:47-57

47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed- 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."55 O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? 56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

MARK 7:31-37

31 Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. 32 Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. 33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

[mariacallous]

In his continued quest to become either the president of the United States or else a very interesting footnote to someone else’s reelection, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has enlisted a number of celebrities and influencers. On Tuesday, he expanded those ranks, confirming to The New York Times that he is “considering” NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura for his vice presidential pick; Politico reported that he’ has also “approached” Senator Rand Paul, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

But it was Rodgers and Ventura who drew the most attention from the press, and it’s their roles in the information ecosystem who most signal what Kennedy is doing. Outside of their careers in the NFL and WWE, Rodgers and Ventura are known for, respectively, promoting anti-vaccine views in conversations with sports podcasters and Joe Rogan, and promoting politically contrarian, occasionally conspiratorial views on cable TV and Substack. By publicizing his interest in them, Kennedy is making overtures to a very specific potential voter: the highly online and politically disaffected young man.

Kennedy, an environmental activist turned anti-vaccine superstar, is already running an extremely online campaign; as WIRED noted recently, the candidate is omnipresent on Instagram, podcasts, and Substack and has used influencers as proxies who will deliver his message to his niche bases. Over the past few months, Kennedy has been seen hanging out with snowboarder Travis Rice, naming a young and persistently bleached-blonde TikToker and aspiring musician named Link Lauren as a “senior adviser” on his campaign, and appearing at a Bitcoin conference.

Online is a comfortable environment for Kennedy, a dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorist who has promoted anti-vaccine views since 2005. Beyond his many and virulent anti-vaccine campaigns, he’s been especially willing to engage in conspiracy theories that are likely to go viral, most notably suggesting that the CIA may have assassinated his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and promoted long-debunked and extremely dangerous junk science about AIDS not being caused by HIV. He has also tried awkwardly to engage with the conspiracy theories about dead pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, on whose private plane he rode at least twice. In December he said that Epstein’s flight logs should be released, and tweeted, “I’m not hiding anything, but they are!”

His efforts to appeal to both a conspiratorial base and a more mainstream voting bloc have been occasionally clumsy, but persistent—and by shoring up his base among young men, who will be increasingly important this election year, he appears to be figuring out how to bridge that gap. One enormous help was, of course, his own appearance on Rogan’s podcast, where the two engaged in three hours of long-winded conspiracy theories about vaccines, 5G technology, and ivermectin, among Kennedy’s other greatest-hits talking points.

Kennedy’s interest in speaking to very online, purportedly “anti-establishment” spaces also means, necessarily, that the people he’s speaking to have a demonstrable overlap with the so-called manosphere, the broad group of bloggers, podcasters, influencers, and grievance-peddlers speaking to young men. Choosing to align himself with figures like Aaron Rodgers—a mainstream football star who has promoted increasingly fringe beliefs, and declared himself to be very brave for doing so—is an excellent way to appeal to the Venn diagram of young men and the conspiracy-curious, says Derek Beres. “It completely makes sense for what he’s doing.”

Beres is an author, speaker, and podcaster who’s one of the cohosts of Conspirituality, which looks at the overlap between New Age and far-right movements. In that role, Beres has observed Kennedy at close range for years and says, “One of the things that I don’t think is talked about enough but is really smart on RFK’s part is he’s been mobilizing fringe communities since he announced his presidential run.”

Neither Rodgers nor Ventura are what you would call politically serious choices; Rodgers has never held elected office, while Ventura hasn’t in 20 years. Neither man speaks to a base that Kennedy hasn’t already hit; in that role, Paul and Gabbard would make more political sense.

Instead, Kennedy is front-loading two men who the young male voter might find in a late-night TikTok or Instagram scroll and who are known for their own fondness for indulging in conspiracy theories and misinformation. Rodgers is best known lately for making misleading claims about being "immunized for Covid,” later revealing that he was taking fake homeopathic “vaccines,” and for appearing to suggest that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel might appear on a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates, for which Kimmel instantly threatened to sue him. He has also become a repeat guest on Rogan’s podcast; in his most recent appearance in February, he nodded along as Rogan claimed that Covid was created in a lab. On Wednesday, it was also reported by CNN that he’d shared Sandy Hook conspiracy theories privately, including in 2013, to Pamela Brown, one of the journalists bylined on the story.

For his part, after Ventura was governor, he had a show called Conspiracy Theory on the outlet TruTV. Clips from the show still occasionally go viral, especially ones purporting to show that the pandemic was “planned.” He then had a show on Russian state-backed news outlet RT America, which focused on purported American hypocrisy wherever he could find it. In a slightly awkward fit for Kennedy, Ventura also decried people who refused to wear masks early in the pandemic. (Kennedy spent a lot of time incorrectly but predictably claiming that mask-wearing was useless and in fact harmful.) Now, Ventura has a Substack with his son, where he delivers political commentary and wrestling stories, a move he claims he made after RT America unceremoniously dumped him for decrying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And most importantly, both Ventura and Rodgers—as outsize and slightly eccentric sports figures—are heroes largely to young men.

Kennedy, Beres says, “is playing culture war politics,” where someone like Aaron Rodgers would make sense; it’s part of his appeal, Beres says, to the mostly male-dominated online body-optimization space. In addition to doing shirtless pushups (in jeans, for some reason), Kennedy has also made numerous appearances with Aubrey Marcus, a fitness influencer and motivational speaker who has been one of his most enthusiastic proxies. The two men are appearing together this weekend at the grandiosely named American Wellness Summit, a Kennedy campaign event just outside Austin, Texas, where the cheapest tickets are a $1,500 campaign donation.

“We’re in a cultural space where you have Donald Trump, who in the past said that exercise depletes your body,” Beres explains. “Then you have a big conversation around Biden’s age, which the right has been pushing and which has been effective in terms of their propaganda. And then you have RFK, who works out at Gold’s Gym and has been spotted there hanging out with Andrew Huberman,” an astonishingly popular neuroscience podcaster. “The optics alone are going to appeal to a young male crowd.”

For his part, Donald Trump has made his own bid for the young male vote’s affections, showing up at Sneaker Con to hawk $400 Trump-branded shoes, signaling his support for Bitcoin, getting (somewhat) into football, and showing up at a UFC match, where he mainly made headlines for appearing to ignore his own grandson. Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, meanwhile, recently got a coveted endorsement from a coalition of 15 Gen Z and millennial voting groups. But as an MSNBC opinion column noted last month, opinion polls seem to show Kennedy with a slim lead among voters 18–34. And as Gallup noted in January, Biden’s favorability ratings among young and non-white adults has fallen since he became president, while Kennedy has “majority-level favorable rating” across all major gender, race, and age groups. Gallup’s Lydia Saad noted that Kennedy could “appeal to that segment of voters who are resistant to Biden but are also not sold on Trump.”

Kennedy has enjoyed, however, some base of support among women for quite some time. The anti-vaccine movement is powered in large part at the grassroots level by mothers who wrongly believe that their choice to vaccinate their children led to them having conditions like autism; women can often be seen crying, cheering, and frankly swooning when Kennedy speaks in front of those audiences. One of his other prominent campaign proxies is an enormously popular celebrity and lifestyle blogger named Jessica Reed Kraus, better known by her online handle Houseinhabit, who is stumping somewhat equally for Kennedy and Trump. (Kraus, too, went viral for involving herself in two high-profile trials, once claiming that Johnny Depp had confided in her during his defamation trial against Amber Heard, as well as“covering” human trafficker and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial in a fairly sympathetic way.)

Despite that preexisting base of support, Kennedy has done very little to speak further to women, especially young women. After speaking at a recent libertarian forum, he declined to tell The Washington Post whether he would protect abortion access and said initially that he hadn’t read a controversial Alabama IVF ruling. (He later said he had reviewed it and “wholeheartedly” rejected the ruling.) He has said he would support a 15-week abortion ban and later said he wouldn’t, and he has called abortion “a tragedy.” Amidst all this waffling over a core issue affecting young women, he found time to meet with an anti-child-support advocate who presents it as a “war on men,” which was then released as part of a Blacks for Kennedy promotional video. (In his attempt to court Black voters, Kennedy did speak with a panel of women in Atlanta. Politico reported that the meeting was coordinated by Angela Stanton King, a former Blacks for Trump proxy who was pardoned by the former president in 2020 for a previous felony conviction.)

In a way, Beres says, Kennedy is campaigning more as an influencer than as a politician, displaying his lifestyle and his connections in a way that would also appeal to an isolated, online male crowd looking for models of how—and who—to be: “He nails an image,” Beres says, “that a lot of people don’t understand they need a lot of money and connections to acquire.” In the end, promoting a controversial athlete and an ex-governor turned blogger as vice-presidential picks may not signal a coherent political vision. But it does show an enormous hunger to engage with online spaces where the young and disaffected men gather, and wait to be shown the way.

[accihoe]

Birthday Boy

Y'ALLLLLL ITS MY MANZ BDAY 2DAYYYYYY

Pairing: Anthony Kiedis x fem!reader

Summary: Celebrating his birthday with him

Warnings: none

A/n: Happy birthday to the man with literally the most gorgeous hair I've seen

xxxx

The phone rang, and I left my suitcase, dashing to answer it.

"Hey pretty, happy birthday."

I spoke, not even having to guess who was calling.

"Thank you. Missing you."

I could hear the strain in his voice, and my heart beat uncomfortably, wishing to spoil the surprise just to cheer him up. For months, Flea and I had formed a plan that we later let John and Chad in on. I'd pretend to not be able to fly out to him on his birthday but rockup to his hotel room.

"You and the boys got anything planned?"

"Yeah, lots. But making out with you sounds much more fun."

I chuckled, squeezing the phone between my ear and shoulder as I reached for Anthony's favorite dress of mine, tossing it onto my suitcase.

"Tell me something nice?"

"Sure honey. I was just looking at that beautiful dress you bought for me, in Paris. I wore it that night you proposed. Feels like decades ago. Can't believe you're already 30."

"Don't remind me."

He chuckled, and I shared a giggle.

"You know, I have a surprise for you."

I mused, biting my lip to hide my smile. Why? I'm unsure myself.

"I'll have to see it when I'm back."

I didn't respond for a while, lost in thought as I tosses things to my suitcase.

"So what's for breakfast?"

"Fruit salad. Wish it was you."

"Anthony!"

I teased, rolling my eyes as I tried to reach for my boots at the top of the cupboard. On my way, I knocked a bag, sending the contents of the whole top shelf tumbling.

"Shoot,"

I mumbled, half forgetting about my husband on the line. At the time I hadn't thought about it, but my tone had been very dismissive and seemingly uncaring.

"You doing something back there?"

"Uh, yeah, just trying to get some laundry sorted."

"Oh? Well pardon me for interrupting your chores on my birthday."

"Ant baby n-"

He hung up. I sighed, dropping the phone to the floor as I gathered the pile that had fallen. Why did I decide to pack mere hours before my flight? Why was I such a procrastinator.

I picked up the phone, ringing him several times. No answer. Fair enough, I'd also have been upset if my spouse chose "laundry" over me on my birthday, especially after flaking seeing me on said day.

Eventually, I resumed with packing. I felt horrible, aware they had a show that evening, and he probably wanted to be off rehearsing and in good spirits, and my good intentions had accidentally hurt him.

The time rolled by swiftly, and I found myself at the airport. Worry was gnawing at my stomach for Anthony. The flight felt far too long, and the taxi ride too. Finally, I arrived at the hotel, just before the time that Flea and I had arranged. He came out, sighing in relief when he saw me.

"I'll hug you later. Anthony's in a state. He's been pacing the room for the past few hours. We hardly got him to eat an apple. He was worried you were upset with him. I wanted to just tell him at some point, but we've been planning this for so long..."

Seeing Flea's kind face was a relief. He wore that usual gentle smile, and we walked as he spoke. I feared Anthony might work himself up into such a fit that it'd interfere with his performance. I could hear him from outside the door.

"Where's Flea? Where has he gone to? I need to see him, maybe he can get ahold of Y/N. I'm going to find him."

We heard him walk to the door.

"Tony, man, Flea'll be bere in a minute. He's gone to fetch you a parcel. Maybe, you should have a drink, and get some fresh air on the balcony. We'll try Y/N again in a few moments."

John spoke up. We heard Anthony agree, all three of us sighing in relief, not wanting to blow the cover we've been planning for ages. We just never intend it for it to get so out of hand. John made an excuse to leave the room and joined us outside, giving me a thumbs up. I hugged them before slipping into the room.

I was careful with my steps, he could recognize them immediately. I walked to the balcony and saw his hair being whipped around by the wind, right hand holding a cigar.

"Hey handsome,"

I spoke gently.

"Seriously? You ordered me a hook-"

He turned around, brows furrowed in annoyance. That annoyance soon dissolved into shock, and then excitement.

"Y/N?"

He stepped closer, a broad grin plastered on his face.

"Surpriiise!"

Flea chimed from behind me. Anthony stepped up to me, enveloping me in a tight hug.

"I thought you couldn't make it?"

He pulled back, eyeing me up at down.

"What you think isn't necessarily always the truth."

"Cheeky bastards."

He grinned at the three of us. The day went smoothly, and the show went beyond amazing. We went out for a meal and drinks afterwards. I was still in my nice dress, the boys in their funky attire. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. When he got a gap, Anthony took my hand, grinning at me.

"Be my wife."

"I already am."

I leaned over and kissed him on his pouty lips.

Xxxx

This fic is not up to standard at all. I apologise. I had literally zero ideas, and I just wanted something out for his birthday.

[yugen3]

In Parthenope ad un certo punto si dice "il silenzio delle persone belle è sempre affascinante, come se custodisse segreti preziosi. Ma il silenzio delle persone brutte è insopportabile, perché sembra vuoto, privo di mistero" e ho pensato mado aiut è così che mi percepiscono gli altri John ti accompagno a bere qualcosa