#Michael Delaware

[quotelr]

Savor the moments in life that make your heart glow. Chase after and find the moments that will take your breath away. In the end, it is only those milestones on life's journey that matter.

Michael Delaware

[unproduciblesmackdown]

augh rewatched the be more chill tiny desk concert for the first time in a minute, very Refreshing to have done so, forgot it's such a jaunty twenty minute affair and in energy lol everyone is so cheerful and just bringing it, like hey in the video description lol "From the moment they arrived for their Tiny Desk debut, the cast and crew of the Broadway musical Be More Chill radiated kind exuberance." and even recalling they had a show That Day but traveled to dc & back like maybe gma performance on a two show day still wins but whew, and the tonys ceremony nonsense having Just happened, the irl bmcness so meta'ly conferred onto bmc never stops....anyways the different arrangements, hearing again even all the more when acoustic & smaller that the Steady Beat of "my own mind" in vimh sure is emphasized & whatever demisemiquaver off of the vocals so it's like highlighting / backing / Resonating without being overly urgent or anything, augh, and we get to the c-c-c-c'mon / let's go section and it's like. inhale. just Responding every time like getting exactly what it's putting down thank you vimh, the [high energy / chaos / Chillness] that previously is all in bad ways like "i am acutely suffering" prior but here is like, the Everything, the amped up energy, the chillness is all so positive & jeremy not having to be overwhelmed even by well meaning input now....augh. and will out there surprise throwing in that octave higher [the only One is mine] like yes Yes!!! thank you be more chill tiny desk concert let's hear (it for) be more chill tiny desk concert

[ihkostwrttemberg]

Bericht: Der Staat Delaware arbeitet an einem Deal, um den ehemaligen NFL-WR DeSean Jackson als nächsten Cheftrainer einzustellen

Der Bundesstaat Delaware schließt sich dem Trend an, dass HBCU-Footballteams ehemalige NFL-Spieler einstellen. Laut ESPN, Die Schule schließt gerade eine Vereinbarung mit dem ehemaligen Wide Receiver DeSean Jackson ab, der ihr nächster Cheftrainer werden soll. Jackson, 38, trat zuletzt in der Saison 2022 in einem NFL-Spiel auf. Jacksons Einstellung würde wenige Tage nach Norfolk State erfolgen…

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

He’s a skinwalker tbh this is why I don’t think Welsh people actually exist

We always talk about how David Tennant manages to pull off the duality of Crowley's look (the switch from angel to demon) and generally change his entire appearance for the different roles he plays but me personally, I am just SO baffled at how they manage to turn Michael Sheen into Aziraphale

[gleaguejersey]

Michael Foster Jr.

[men-iss-vess-ull]

went into a different gas station than usual and caught the end of a conversation between the two clerks

michael rooker lookalike with heavy delaware accent: "I have no doubt that socrates was brilliant, but that teaching method just doesn't seem suited to our times"

30 year old emo guy with kingdom hearts tattoo peaking over his polo collar: "but you can't deny that it at least creates a more engaging environment than simply lecturing, can you?"

[politicaldilfs]

2024 Gubernatorial DILFs

1st: Incumbent Renominated Gubernatorial DILFS -- Phil Scott, Greg Gianforte, Spencer Cox

Scott and Gianforte are the cream of the crop. Cox is just barely daddy-ish for me. Although, he's anti-Trump which helps. Still, he doesn't hold a candle to his opponent, Brian King:

If we were voting on looks alone, mine would go: Scott, Gianforte, and King.

2nd: Retiring/Term-Limited Incumbent Gubernatorial DILFs

Jay Inslee, Chris Sununu, Doug Burgum, Jim Justice, Eric Holcomb, John Carney, Mike Parson, Roy Cooper

And finally, the remaining DILFs in the 2024 U.S. gubernatorial elections:

North Dakota -- Kelly Armstrong < Merrill Piepkorn

Washington -- Bob Ferguson < Dave Reichert

Delaware -- Matt Meyer > Michael Ramone

West Virginia -- Patrick Morrisey < Steve Williams

And the remaining DILF candidates:

Josh Stein, Mike Kehoe, Mike Braun

[coimbrabertone]

The Backdoor Deals that Make Motorsport Go Round

This is going to be a bit of a different blogpost.

First things first, last weekend during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, we started hearing about the Andretti Cadillac to F1 story being resolved, at least on the Cadillac side. Today, we got confirmation, with the Cadillac F1 team confirmed to join for 2026. So far, we know this: Dan Towriss will be CEO, Mario Andretti (not Michael) will serve on the board, and Cadillac will initially use a Ferrari power unit while Cadillac develops their own unit in Michigan.

We also know that the team will retain all of Andretti's hires so far - Pat Symonds chief among them - and that the team will be based in Fishers, Indiana (where Andretti's new base will be) with a sort of forward operating base in Silverstone.

So...it's Andretti with the serial numbers filed off.

And I think this has been in the works for a long time.

Let me talk about a few things, and then we'll weave all these little threads together to show a bigger picture.

First things first, Michael Andretti launches Andretti Aquisition Corporation I - a Special-Purpose Acquisition Corporation, which is a public company that exists for the whole purpose of buying out a private company, merging with that private company, and using that to make the private company public in a streamlined manner - to merge into an AI company called Zapata.

Zapata starts trading at $10 a share, it almost immediately drops to $2.95 a share, and it keeps dropping. As of November 25th, 2024, Zapata AI stock is trading at $0.02 a share. That is quite literally two cents a share.

I don't need an economics degree to tell you that was a shitshow of a stock.

Second of all, at the Miami Grand Prix, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei reportedly promised to do everything in his power to keep the Andretti name out of Formula One.

Third of all, in response, Mario Andretti goes to his friends on Capitol Hill - Mario is the big political donor of the family - and petitions Congress to begin an antitrust probe into Formula One and Liberty Media.

Fourth of all, at the end of the 2024 NTT Indycar Series, Michael Andretti announces his decision to step down from the day-to-day running of Andretti Global. Dan Towriss, co-owner and the man who brought in Group 1001 (and its Gainbridge and Delaware Life subsidiaries) to the team, has been taken control. Michael is still a strategic advisor and maintains that he will still be connected to this team, but...it's a change.

And for whatever it's worth, there are whispers that Michael Andretti stepping down wasn't entirely his own decision.

Fifth of all, two weeks ago, Greg Maffei announced he is stepping down from his role at Formula One and Liberty Media at the end of the year.

Finally, like I said, it has now been confirmed that Cadillac will enter Formula One as its eleventh team. Mario is on the board, Dan Towriss is in charge, and the team will be run on Cadillac's behalf by Towriss' TWG Global.

TWG Global is said to be the owner of Andretti Global in Indycar, Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, and Spire Motorsports in NASCAR. That last one is particularly notable because, while there have been rumors about Andretti buying into Spire and Towriss' companies consistently sponsor the Spire cars, this is the first time we've actually heard about him owning a piece of Spire.

I guess Dan Towriss' thing is quietly acquiring racing teams without putting his name on them.

In any case, after all that, Cadillac is going to be in F1, the Andretti organization is going to run the team, but the Andretti name - particularly Michael Andretti - is not going to be attached to this project.

To illustrate that point, today, Michael Andretti tweeted about how proud he is about an American team entering Formula One and that he'll be cheering them on from the outside.

So...what has happened?

I think Michael Andretti got burnt bad on the Zapata stock, and I think it's possible that he might have been playing with some of Dan Towriss' money while doing so. So, Andretti now owes Towriss money, Towriss sees Formula One as a more lucrative return on investment than Indycar, and Michael Andretti has rubbed people the wrong way in Formula One.

Liberty Media and Formula One don't want Michael Andretti in Formula One.

Cadillac and Towriss want to be in F1.

Mario Andretti is a World Champion, so his name carries weight in Europe, but Michael Andretti's name does not. People in Europe either don't know who Michael is or remember him for that disastrous McLaren stint.

They don't care that Michael's bad 1993 was sandwiched either side by challenging for the championship in CART.

So...I think Michael Andretti had to get out of the way.

I think Greg Maffei had to get out of the way as well.

Cadillac is a big money name, Dan Towriss is a big money guy, and Formula One wants the American market, so an American manufacturer is an immense resource in that regard. So, in the name of the money, they got rid of the two big egos holding the deal up, and they got the team on the grid.

Now, I'm not a news source or anything, I'm just speculating on the bits and pieces of this that we know are public, but I find it hard to believe it's a complete coincidence that Michael steps down, Maffei announces his retirement, and then suddenly a Cadillac team is accepted with Andretti in more of a background role.

To me, it screams of a background deal for the greater good of the money people.

Liberty Media and Formula One don't want the Department of Justice sniffing around their business. Towriss and Cadillac want a piece of that Formula One pie. Mario Andretti wants to see his family's team in Formula One before he dies.

As for Michael, well...Andretti Global was his team, but he brought in investors, he started hiring people, he started building facilities in Indiana and in Motorsport Valley. The ball was already rolling, and Michael Andretti was the only thing holding it up.

Was he forced out? Maybe, but I think it's more likely that he was given a light push and a retirement package so that he can sit on his couch with his granddaughter and watch his team put a car on the Formula One grid.

Just without his name on it.

[hellocoraco]

"Don't you see? You created this forest! It is your imagination that has given these trees the water to grow. It is your hopes that blazed a path through it. It is your dreams that give it the magic. All of this was created from within you!"

- Michael Delaware

Painting: Natalia Polikorpova

“Silence of the Forestal”

[shallowseeker]

Recruiting Dean

Via the Nightmare-land of all his current anxieties.

Zach I - Zach II - Zach III - Say it ain't so - Cas can DIE?! - Bobby, demoralized - Dean and Cas's mutual, pissy fatalism - Love blooming, personal space - You're not much fun, so why am I laughing so hard? - Dean's anixety at being a vessel - Sam: Everybody please panic, I'm a vessel, too!

Disclaimer: I love ALL The End meta, from the ones that look for hidden meanings and the ones where Chuck is hiding incognito in his first-row seats, but I thought this would be a Hella a fun way to ask this question.

///

What if The End is all about Dean and Zach? What is almost everyone IN IT is Zach, tapping into and mocking Dean's churning ruminations and anxieties?

What would that analysis look like? What might we predict? We know that Zach recruited a Jehovah's Witness, and after Dean's call with Sam, Zach entered the motel to try yet another sales pitch.

Zach got into Dean's bedroom. But maybe this time, Zach's going deeper. Perhaps he got into Dean's dreams, too.

In the previous Zach adventures, he tried to give Dean a vision of a loser's life, one Dean wouldn't be able to stand: a corporate yes-man who listened to NPR and steamed his latte like a wuss. Remember his pitch in It's a Terrible Life?

ZACHARIAH: Save people, maybe even the world. All the while you drive a classic car and fornicate with women. This isn't a curse. It's a gift. So for God's sakes, Dean, quit whining about it. Look around. There are plenty of fates worse than yours. So are you with me? You wanna go steam yourself another latte? Or are you ready to stand up and be who you really are?

But just like he will later miss the mark on Adam's personality a bit, he misses on Dean at first, too. Dean cares about family.

"My father's name is Bob, my mother's name is Ellen, and my sister's name is Jo." // "Are you saying my family isn't real?"

///

We'll hear Zach make more pitches to Dean in the beautiful room in Lucifer Rising. Time-honored things that, from his experience, tend to work when recruiting humans, from happy memories to food to TV fantasy to food to sexual adoration:

ZACHARIAH: Try a burger. They're your favorite. From that seaside shack in Delaware. You were 11, I think. DEAN: I'm not hungry. ZACHARIAH: No? How about Ginger from season 2 of "Gilligan's Island"? You do have a thing for her, don't you? DEAN: Tempting. Weird. ZACHARIAH: We'll throw in Mary Ann for free. DEAN: No, no. Let's... bail on the holodeck, okay? I want to know what the game plan is.

///

ZACHARIAH (to a crying Dean): And when it's over... and when you've won... your rewards will be... unimaginable. Peace, happiness... two virgins and seventy sluts.

///

We'll get a whiff of AU Zachariah's tactics with a nervous, broken Kevin Tran in s13, too:

Meredith Glynn had intended a more... grayscale view of Zach's intentions via @spnscripthunt-inactive, but either way is very good. Very Zach:

Who knows why, but in Meredith's version, Zach is convinced that Jack is the way, not Kevin.

Anyhoo, more on the Jack-Zach interactions later. For now, I'm just thinking about the whiff of Zach's and upper Heaven management's style of recruiting tactics through Kevin's words:

LUCIFER: Kevin, what are you doing, getting mixed up with Michael? ... KEVIN: ...Michael's taking me with him to paradise world so I can meet hot women. LUCIFER: I'm sorry. What?

Jack, who had also been tortured (stabbed, burned, drowned) by Zachariah, tried to reach out to Kevin. Mary even more so:

KEVIN: Y-you don't understand... then the end of the world happened, and everyone around me-- my friends, and my… my mom-- they all started to die. ... KEVIN: No! Michael says… that when I get to Heaven-- when he lets me into Heaven-- I'll get to see my mom again. I don't care! You don't understand. I… You don't know the things that I've done. I just want this to be over.

Now, we see the truth. Kevin was never interested in the recruitment line, something-something hot women. Not really. That was just a boisterous shield to hide the deeper pain.

He just wanted to see his mom again.

///

So. When we reach 5x04, we see Zach adjust fire with Dean.

In 5x01, he tried a different, more forceful way of recruiting Dean, making him feel terrible about himself.

...I feel like looking at The End as a nightmare land of all of Dean's anxieties is a really fun way to revisit it.

But before that, if we consider this question, what might we predict for Zach to uncover, based on all the stuff Dean is feeling Weird (TM) and Stressed (TM) about right now?

Based on all the other stuff we've been thinking about, I'll make a small list of potentials, starting with the Bobby-Dean confrontation at the end of last season...

[pwnyta]

AND NOW!!! For the GRAND FINALE OF BNHA AWARDS!!!

Award for MOST DISAPPOINTING VILLAIN SOMEHOW! goes to...

AFO!!

...You were so intimidating dude....

----

The award for IM GIVING HER ANOTHER AWARD YOU CANT FUCKING STOP ME goes to...

MT LADY!!!!

LOOKIT HER GO!!!!!

-------

Award for THIS LOOKED LIKE IT WAS GONNA BE SO GOOD goes to...

Aizawa and Michael! in falling into Kurogiri!!

Really I thought this was gonna go so hard....

-----

Award for MOST CUCKED BY A VILLAIN goes to...

TSUKAUCHI!

You coulda been that villain obsessed with Toshi but Hori plays too much.

--------------

Award for DAMN ALL MIGHT IS THE ONE!!!! goes to....

ALL MIGHT!!!

Im a proud All Might stan NGL...

------

Award for MOST OUTTA POCKET PUNCH goes to....

TOKOYAMI!!!

Holy shit Tokoyami!! GET HIS ASS!!!! (Im also a proud Tokoyami stan!)

-------

Award for MOST BEAUTIFUL FIERY REPRESENTATION OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTER goes to...

Phantom All Might!!!!

Youre so damn BEAUUUUUTIFUL GIRL~

-----------

Award for I PROBABLY SHOULD BE DISAPPOINTED STAIN DIDNT INTERACT WITH SHOTO AND IIDA BUT IM SOMEHOW NOT??? goes to...

Stain Shoto and Iida!

Theyre too damn good!!!

---------

Award for MOST PIETA ASS PANEL AND FUNNIEST WAY TO CALL SOMEONE A VIRGIN goes to...

AFO AND ALL MIGHT!!

Toshi bless..

--------

Award for BIGGEST INCEL goes to...

AFO!

Bro was so mad Stain and Toshi had their weird whirlwind romance while beating the fuck outta him he killed Stain and took his quirk to make Toshi regret it... CRINGE....

--------

Award for MOST TRAGIC HALLUCINATION THAT MIGHT NOT BE A HALLUCINATION goes to....

NIGHTEYE AND ALL MIGHT!

;w;....

------

Award for MOST POINTLESSLY EXTRA EMPTY ATTACK DEPICTION goes to....

This Delaware SMASH!

LMAO.... Hori you needed all the space in the world why did you do this...

----

Award for IF I IGNORE SO MUCH I HATE THIS PANEL SLAPS SO FUCKING HARD goes to...

THIS PANEL!

IT GOES SO FUCKING HARD!!!

-----

Award for I MEAN HES KIND OF A BRO FOR AN NPC goes to....

??? Whoever this dude is?

Good for him. Have a trophy! All Might stan to All Might stan!

----

Award for THE BABYSITTER OF ALL TIME!!! goes to...

Ectoplasm!

Dont you think he'd be more useful on the field....

-------

Award for MOST USEFUL TCHOTCHKE IN HISTORY goes to...

AOYAMA!!!

...Im so proud of you my beautiful son!!!!

------

Award for HAVING THE VILLAIN LOOK LIKE ALL MIGHT WOULDA BEEN SO COOL IF EVERY BNHA MOVIE DIDNT USE THIS IDEA goes to...

Shigaraki/AFO!!!

IT WOULDA BEEN PRETTY COOL!!

---------

Award for I REALLY CANT BELIEVE HE DIDNT REALLY DO LIKE ANYTHING BUT ALSO SURVIVED goes to...

PRESENTATION MICHAEL!!!!!

Feels underutilized like a lot of characters!!

------------

Award for ROBINS VOICE WHEN SHE WAS SCOLDING FRANKY FOR MAKING CHOPPERS FACE UGLY: STOP IT! goes to...

Kouda...

THATS NOT MY BABY!!!

--------------

Award for MOST FUN SHONEN SERIES THAT BECAME THE SHITTIEST SHONEN SERIES THAT I COULDNT DROP BECAUSE I WAS IN TOO DEEP goes to...

BNHA!!!

Hori I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU!!!! WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!!!

AND WITH THAT WHIMPER!!!! Here concludes the BNHA awards (unless anyone wants me to add more categories!)

[daggerzine]

MY FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2024!

MY FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2024 (in no particular order)

Chime School- The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel (Slumberland)

Mary Timony- Untame the Tiger (Merge)

Weak Signal- fine (12XU)

Dummy- Free Energy (Trouble in Mind)

The Softies- The Bed I Made (Father Daughter)

The Tyde- Season 5 (Spiritual Pajamas)

Best Bets- The Hollow Husk of Feeling (Meritorio)

Jessica Pratt- Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer)

Ducks Ltd- Harms Way (Carpark)

Peter Perrett- The Cleansing (Domino)

The Sharp Pins- Radio DDR (self released)

Lightheaded- Combustible Gems (Slumberland)

Beachwood Sparks- Across the River of Stars (Curation)

The Reds, Pinks and Purples- Unwishing Well (Slumberland)

The Infinites- Archetypes (Meritorio)

The Lemon Twigs- A Dream is All We Know (Captured Tracks)

Redd Kross- S/T (in the Red)

Yea-Ming and the Rumors- I Can't Have it All (Dandy Boy)

Humdrum- Every Heaven (Slumberland)

Jim Nothing- Grey Eyes Grey Lynn (Meritorio)

WAIT HERE'S 20 MORE!

Lovejoy- ..and it's love! (Shelflife/Spinout Nuggets)

Class - A Healthy Alternative (Feel It Records)

Bloodstains- S/T (self released)

The Hard Quartet- S/T (Matador)

Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band- Loophole (Modern Sky)

The Resonars- Electricity Plus (self released)

Mythical Motors- Seven is Circular (self released)

Sad Eyed Beatniks- Ten Brocades (Meritorio)

Club 8- A Year with Club 8 (self released)

Torrey- S/T (Slumberland)

Pale Lights- Waverly Place Jigsaw)

The BVs- Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures (Shelflife)

Deep Tunnel Project- S/T (Comedy Minus One)

Mt.Misery- Love In Mind (Prefect)

Winged Wheel- Big Hotel (12XU)

Lunchbox- Pop and Circumstance (Slumberland)

Tears Run Rings- Everything in the End (Shelflife)

Nada Surf- Moon Mirror (New West)

Savak- Flavors of Paradise (Ernest Jenning)

Kevin Robertson- The Call of the Sea (Futureman)

AAAAAAND....HERE'S 10 MORE!

Steve Wynn- Make It Right (Fire)

Pernice Brothers- Who Will You Believe (New West)

Laughing- Because It's Better (Celluloid Lunch)

Outer World- Who Does the Music Love? (HHBTM)

Rachel Love-  Lyra (The Cat Collects)

Wussy- Cincinnati Ohio (Shake It)

The Armoires- Octoberland (Big Stir Records)

Boyracer- Seaside Riot (Emotional Response

Being Dead- Eels (Bayonet)

Quivers- Oyster Cuts (Merge)

I ALSO REALLY LIKED RECORDS BY:  2nd Grade, Mo Dotti, Water Damage, The Folk Implosion, The Umbrellas, Laughing, Lupe Citta, Feeling Figures, Flowertown, Trust Fund, Chimers, Smashing Times, Ned Collette, Kim Deal, Metz, Sleveens, Cathedral Ceilings, Soup Activists, Bill Ryder-Jones, Neutrals, Pete Astor, Buffalo Tom, GospelBeach, The Shop Window, Lions of the Interstate,  The Caraway, Extra Arms, J. Robbins,  The Grain Hoppers, The Yellow Melodies, Mark Bacino, The Proctors, Penny Arcade, Magic Fig, Seasonal Falls, The Reflectors, Chanel Beads, etc. 

MY 15 FAVORITE REISSUES/COLLECTIONS OF 2O24

The Saints- I'm Stranded box set (In the Red)

Galaxie 500- Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90 (20/20/20)

Shop Assistants- S/T (Chrysalis)

Birdie- Some Dusty (Slumberland)

The Rain Parade- Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (Label 51)

The Ladybug Transistor- Albermarle Sound (Merge)

Love Child-Never Meant To Be (1988-1993) (12XU)

Velocity Girl- Ultracopacetic (Sub Pop)

East Village- Drop Out (Heavenly)

A Girl Called Eddy- S/T (Last Night From Glasgow)

David Kilgour- A Feather in the Engine (Merge)

Linda Smith- Nothin Else Matters (Captured Tracks)

The Fluid- Clear Black Paper (Sub Pop)

Drop 19's- Delaware (Wharf Cat)

High Llamas- Hawaii (Drag City)

MY 5 FAVORITE EPS OF 2024!

R.E. Seraphin- Fool's Mate (Safe Suburban Home/ Take a Turn) 

Finnogun's Wake- Stay Young (What's Your Rupture)

Cori Elba- Full Stop (self released)

Slack Times- Gone Things (Meritorio)

Surfing Pointers- S/T (BirthDIY)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate:

The federal government is poised to apologize for decades of intolerance toward the LGBTQ+ community. U.S. Senators Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, and Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin who is the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Senate, have introduced a resolution on Tuesday that seeks to formally apologize for the historical discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ people in the federal workforce. The resolution, introduced during Pride Month, acknowledges the mistreatment and wrongful terminations of LGBTQ+ civil servants, foreign service officers, and service members, dating back to 1949.

“LGBT civil servants, foreign service officers, and service members have made countless sacrifices and contributions to our country and national security. Despite this, our government has subjected them to decades of harassment, invasive investigations, and wrongful termination because of who they are or who they love,” Kaine said in a press release. “This Pride Month, I’m proud to lead this resolution alongside Senator Baldwin to reaffirm our commitment to righting our past wrongs and fighting for equality for all LGBT Americans.”

A dark chapter in history

The resolution highlights the Lavender Scare, a period from the early 1940s through the 1960s during which queer federal employees were targeted and persecuted. This era, marked by heightened suspicion and discrimination, saw thousands of federal workers lose their jobs due to their sexual orientation. The most recent wave of such discrimination was perpetuated by the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which was in effect from 1994 to 2011 and led to the discharge of more than 100,000 LGBTQ+ military service members.

The resolution acknowledges the extensive harm caused by these discriminatory policies, stating, “the Federal Government discriminated against and terminated hundreds of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who served the United States in the uniformed services, the Foreign Service, and the Federal civil service for decades, causing untold harm to those individuals professionally, financially, socially, and medically, among other harms.”

[...]

Support and future steps

The resolution is co-sponsored by a host of prominent Democratic senators, including Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeff Merkley from Oregon, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, Patty Murray from Washington, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire, Bob Casey from Pennsylvania, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Massachusetts’s Edward Markey, Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Colorado’s Michael Bennet, Ron Wyden from Oregon, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Virginia’s Mark R. Warner.

What happens next?

The Senate will now review the resolution. If it gains sufficient support, it will proceed to a vote. If passed, it will serve as a formal acknowledgment and apology for the historical injustices faced by LGBTQ+ federal employees.

Tim Kaine and Tammy Baldwin, a pair of Democratic Senators, introduced a resolution seeking a formal apology for decades of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the federal government, especially during the Lavender Scare era.

[heathersdesk]

Why doesn't the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints build homeless shelters, hospitals, etc?

Because the Church doesn't duplicate infrastructure.

Why build an entirely new hospital when you can provide resources and volunteers to an existing one? (Note: they built Deseret Hospital, which was the predecessor to both LDS Hospital and Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City)

Why build homeless shelters when it is far more effective to house the homeless instead with the same money?

Why create new charities when you can donate to existing ones?

People who use this line think they've found some clever Gotcha on a subject they don't know anything about.

Source: Me. I spent part of my mission serving at Temple Square. It includes Welfare Square, the hub of the Church's humanitarian aid program. It represents generations of the Church's investments into providing for those in need. The scope of what they do is so broad, I can't explain it all here. But the Relief Society innovated safe grain storage, which has gone into helping people in need for over a hundred years all over the world. Relief Society grain fed people after the San Francisco Earthquake, World War I, the Great Depression, and the Great Chinese Famine. The women of the Church created infrastructure where it did not exist, and it has been the backbone of the Church's humanitarian aid ever since.

The thing I most remember was the fact that they could get wheelchairs to people in the developing world for $4 a pop. They don't do any of that on their own. They do it in partnership with other organizations because it means they can help more people with the resources they give. The Church and its volunteers get less recognition that way, but that doesn't matter to us. It's the good deed done well that motivates my people, not recognition.

Why don't I care that the Church-owned ranches and farms are so large and valuable? Because that is where the food in the Bishop's Storehouses comes from. The Church grows and processes all the food they give away, functioning almost entirely on volunteer labor. There is a cannery right around the corner from my house where I've assisted in the Church's efforts to can peaches. Those peaches were grown on a church-owned farm. My congregation gets a cannery assignment, shared with all the other congregations here locally, to process food that feeds people in our community, whether they're active members of the Church or not. And ours is just one example of operations just like it that exist all over the world.

I've stood in the kitchens of Brazilian women who were preparing and storing rice to give away to people in need. The Young Women in my last ward collected donations to make hygiene kits to give away to homeless people. Wherever there are women in this Church, there will always be people finding ways to help people simply because they care.

Which is a reminder to my LDS friends who follow me: you don't have to listen to people who criticize the Church's generosity, especially when they're loud and wrong. Just start rattling off the ways you've seen the Church and its people do good where you are, or wherever you've been.

They probably don't remember Hurricane Sandy when it leveled New Jersey. But I do because my YSA congregation in Delaware had sign up sheets going around for months for volunteers to participate in the cleanup. They don't remember Hurricane Michael. But I do, because I was visiting family in the aftermath and saw all the roofs that were tarped by volunteers from my Church, members of that community in the Florida panhandle whose own church building was still in shambles.

Need a way to see all the good the Church is doing where you live? Go to justserve.org. It is full of volunteer opportunities in your local community, many of which are on there because of volunteers from the Church and the causes they're already involved in. I put one in the bulletin for my congregation each week. It's a better use of your time than entertaining out of pocket nonsense in your Asks from strangers on the Internet.

[middlegradeeveryday]

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

Summary:

It's August 1999. For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever—except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his sixteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby. But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby.

It turns out that Ridge is carefree, confident, and bold, things Michael wishes he could be. Unlike Michael, however, Ridge isn’t where he belongs. When Ridge reveals that he’s the world’s first time traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned but curious. As Ridge immerses himself in 1999—fascinated by microwaves, basketballs, and malls—Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else: focused determination. Michael wants—no, needs—to get his hands on that book. How else can he prepare for the future? But how far is he willing to go to get it?

A story of time travel, friendship, found family, and first loves, this thematically rich novel is distinguished by its voice, character development, setting, and exploration of the issues that resonate with middle grade readers. A Finalist for the National Book Award and the Winner of the Newbery Medal.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Book Type: Novel

[mightyflamethrower]

As Trump continues to show leads in critical swing states, as various lawfare-inspired cases against him seem to the public to be more persecutions than prosecutions, and as Joe Biden appears daily more incoherent and lost, the left on spec has resorted to warning the nation about all the supposedly catastrophic consequences of a future Trump presidency.

Ironically, the left seems oblivious to the reality that one reason Trump leads Biden in the polls is precisely because voters can compare the four-year record of the prior Trump presidency to Biden’s last 40 months.

Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that Trump will conspire with oil executives to spike gasoline prices. But even after Biden drained the strategic petroleum reserve before the 2022 midterms and is now again doing the same as the 2024 election approaches, gas prices have averaged only one-third cheaper than under Trump.

Trump tried to top off the reserve but was blocked by Democrats in Congress. Nevertheless, he left Biden a nearly full reservoir of 638 million barrels (about 90 percent full), which Biden has now drained by some 270 million barrels to the present 51 percent full—and the levels are falling further as voting nears.

We are warned that 77-year-old Trump looks haggard after his long hours in court. He seems sleepy, we are told. He has aged terribly, the media tell us. But polls show that concern over Biden’s dementia greatly outweighs normal worry over septuagenarian candidate Trump.

Why would any sane pro-Biden handler bring up Trump’s supposed gait or occasional forgotten word when that only reminds the public of the contrast with Biden, whose speeches seem delivered in something other than English and whose transcripts must be heavily edited to airbrush away his incoherence?

We are told that Trump will increase racial tensions. Almost daily, blacks and Hispanics are warned that Trump is a racist—even as polls show that he may well receive the highest percentage of minority votes by any Republican in modern history and has some chance of winning outright the Hispanic vote. Oddly, the media is now attacking minorities on the Marxist principle of false consciousness, as if they are deluded into voting against themselves rather than being perceptive critics of the Biden disaster of high inflation, green mania, a deluge of illegal aliens, and loss of deterrence abroad.

It was not Trump, but Biden, who, during the last election cycles, called one African-American journalist a “junkie” and warned another podcaster, “You ain’t black,” if he voted for Trump. And during his presidency, on occasion, Biden has referred to black subordinates as “boy,” uses the ossified term “Negro,” and has a long history of racist drivel and smears, from “put y’all back in chains” to referencing Barack Obama as the first “clean” and “articulate” presidential candidate to proudly reminding us that his home state of Delaware was once a “slave state.”

As Trump’s polls climbed and the Fani Willis persecution was sidetracked by her own false testimonies, conflicts of interest, and the hiring of her unqualified clandestine paramour, hysterical cries mounted that a reelected Trump would use the powers of government to go after his enemies.

As Jack Smith’s federal indictment became calcified over issues of presidential immunity, his failed efforts to ram through the prosecution before the election, and his office lying over tampering with evidence seized at Mar-A-Lago, tired warnings of Trump’s weaponization to come of the bureaucracy mounted even more.

Now that the jury is out in the Alvin Bragg fiasco and his star witness, Michael Cohen, a convicted liar, has likely again perjured himself and admitted to stealing $60,000 from the Trump organization, Trumpophobia has further peaked.

In other words, the more evidence mounts that Trump’s enemies have manipulated the court system in the manner that they previously impeached him twice, tried him as a private citizen in the Senate, sought to remove him from state ballots, rounded up ex-intelligence officers to lie about the authentic Hunter Biden laptop on the eve of the 2020 presidential debate, and were exposed concocting the Russian collusion yarn by hiring a foreign national in the 2016 campaign, paradoxically, the more the left-wing media warns America that a President Trump would do exactly what they have been doing by emulating their weaponization of the courts, the bureaucracy, and the Congress.

It gets stranger still.

The left warns the country that Trump will deport some or many of the 10 million illegal aliens that Joe Biden and his impeached Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas have deliberately welcomed in.

Consider the logic: the current president destroyed a once-secure border and, for political purposes, illegally rendered immigration law enforcement null and void. But we are still supposed to fear his successor, who would resecure the border, return millions of recently crossed illegal aliens to their countries of origin, and restore the sanctity of federal law. In Orwellian fashion, the Biden administration is now suing exasperated states that are doing their part to help enforce immigration laws that Biden has deliberately shredded.

The absurdity extends to foreign policy. Team Biden and the media are issuing warnings here and abroad that another Trump presidency would tear apart the global order.

Really? Vladimir Putin has invaded neighboring nations in three of the last four administrations, but did not only during the Trump 2017-2020 years. Why?

Before October 7, even Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan preened that his Middle East portfolio was “quieter than in two decades”—but only after Trump’s destroyed ISIS, took out the terrorist Iranian general Soleimani, ended the disastrous Iran deal, cut off aid to Hamas, designated the Houthi terrorists, crafted the Abraham Accords, pledged full support for Israel, our only democratic ally in the Middle East, and achieved U.S. oil independence.

In contrast, Putin invaded Ukraine and may well absorb much of its eastern half. The U.S. suffered its greatest military humiliation of the last half century in fleeing from Kabul and handing over billions of dollars in weapons to the terrorist Taliban, abandoning our NATO-allied forces, sympathetic Afghans, and American contractors.

Hamas killed more Jews in a single day than any since the Holocaust. A full-scale war rages in Gaza. Hezbollah has displaced thousands of Israelis with its daily attacks. And for the first time in history, Iran has attacked in force the Israeli homeland.

China, with impunity, sent a spy balloon across the continental US. Some 25,000 Chinese male illegal aliens mysteriously barged into the U.S. And China has helped kill 100,000 Americans a year through its fentanyl exports to the Mexican cartels.

Given all that, are we supposed to worry that “sharp as a knife” Biden’s disastrous foreign policy will be ruined by a return to the peaceful record of the earlier Trump presidency?

So, what is Trumpophobia? The syndrome displays a number of symptoms.

One, the left always projects its sins onto its opponents. It accuses Trump of doing precisely what it has done, as a way of avoiding blame for its self-inflicted disasters. And the left so vehemently projects because it knows what it would do if it were Trump and was treated as he has been by them.

Two, desperate Democrats are scrambling to find some bizarre way to depose both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, especially should Biden have a disastrous, historic preconvention June presidential debate. As a result, the 2024 campaign has never been about comparison of 2017-2020 to 2021-2024. But rather, it has already descended into the Democratic de facto smear that “Trump is even worse than Biden.” And that fixation instills fears of what Trump might do rather than what he actually has done.

Three, the left feels Biden may do more than just lose the Democrats the presidency, Senate, and its close margin in the House. His hyperinflation seriously damaged the middle class. He turns them off with his arrogance, screaming speeches, loud, obnoxious gibberish, compulsive lying, and generally impotent appearance.

His racial condescension and pandering fool no one. As a result, Biden may well redefine the two parties as race is replaced by shared class concerns. Wealthy blacks may vote for Biden because they are black and wealthy, but more and more middle-class blacks may vote for Trump because they feel his policies benefit the middle class like themselves.

The public increasingly agrees that the Democrat Party is the party of the very rich, the bicoastal privileged, and the subsidized poor, while the lower and middle classes feel far more confident and secure with Republicans.

Four, the left fears a more organized, savvier Trump second term might hit the ground running‚ and thus rapidly and professionally instill a conservative agenda to stop the current neo-socialist revolution.

Given all that, 2024 for the left is little more than “Fear Trump or Bust.”