#North Jackson Chiefs

[svalleynow]

Area Football Teams Finish Regular Prepare for Playoffs

In South Pittsburg, when you lose 18 of 22 starters, you don’t think about rebuilding its next man up. The 2023 Pirates won the TSSAA state championship but only returned four starters. They were on the road on Friday night against their region rival, Whitwell Tigers. Both teams entered the contest ranked in the top 10 in the state and unbeaten in Region 3-1A play. South Pittsburg used their…

[chasedeys]

oh em gee im a ravens fan 😞💔. i also adore lamar …would love to hear your thoughts on lamar/derrick and/or lamar/kyle 🤗🤗

ALSJDJSJ HELLOOO 😭😭 first of all sorrows sorrows prayers 💔 and like. slight apologies did my sudden rooting for the ravens bc the lions booked it (sorrows sorrows prayers also 😔….apologies did my sudden rooting for the lions—😭) bring you shit luck like. how the fuck... BUT ANYWAYS BRINGING JOYYYY with some rpf talk akhdskjs wow brought this upon myself i dont really like know much abt the ravens ship wise argrhgrh like i don’t think anybody has asked me any ship outside of the bengals?? outside of joemarr really 😭 like no one has even asked me abt jjkoc whom i adore and bring up constantly even on asks abt joemarr?? 😭 (EDIT: THANK YOU CASEY AND CHRISNOELIE WHO HAVE LITERALLY JUST SENT ASKS 😭😭❤️) that’s such a shame (to be fair i dont really. know that many ships or show. that i like ship that many either lmao) 😔 OH WELL OKAY USING THIS LIKE. FOR MY PORTFOLIO what fucking portfolioaksjsksksk yapped abt any ship of my own volition am actually sweating a bit at this bc like. i dont actually?? know them??? so this is mostly like from Vibes ive seen from clips of them floating around here and twt and ig that have spurred the Fire in me to just. See Shit. do you get me.

bengals mutuals who are sensitive abt ravens pls look away 🫶 and like don’t block me aksjsksk let me rpf in peace i beg 😭 i just see pretty men with chemistry and i want to see them kiss 😔

AUGH prefacing this with like. the only thing ive actually written shippy wise abt the ravens is that one lamar/ja’marr thing im actually so fucking fond offfff in that shippy rpf list thing i did way back oh that led that one ask i got damn wait i actually have gotten an ask outside of joemarr like that frock and also on lamar/ja’marr!!!!! god i should do that thing again akhdksjs ANYWAYS SORRY MOVING ON (wait no. lamar/ja’marr. still so enamored. sorry. it’s the ja’marr truther in me i fear.)

disclaimer my characterization (???? for rpf?????) of them may be skewed???? because like. i haven’t been as deep into their lore as i am with joemarr and the bengals. and like their history isn’t as deeply documented here as joemarrs is lol. i follow. 2 people tops including you who are ravens fans. several others with running back adoration shining through too so. like. keep that in mind 😭

DERRICK LAMAR HERE WE GOOOOO FUCKKKKK do you know. how fucking enamored i am. that derrick has been so fucking steadfast in his defense of lamar as a quarterback. he’s so. all his tweets. all his quotes. oh my godddd. he’s soooooo. he came to fucking ravens because lamar is the fucking quarterback???? all those clapbacks he did saying lamar is his qb????? i don’t actually recall all his tweets sorry are they tweets wow but like. all i remember are just. vibes. and those vibes are just. him basically saying. fuck you i know what im all about and that’s lamar fucking jackson keep his name out of your mouth. thats hot as shitttttt are you kidding me 😭😭 and he’s gorgeous. fucking beautiful. he’s fucking huge and downright shameless about it. he wears his tops like they’re a suggestion rather than a necessity. i think he’d rather wear crop tops on the daily actually. we should start petitioning nfl uni changes to like. crop tops. see through pads too. he’d be overjoyed, i think. i’d be overjoyed. also.

and lamar’s like. murder in his mind but also fucking hilarious this man in the playoffs talking abt how he’s here to compete not be friends with other qbs or something like that idk i forgot whatever it is he said that one presser abt josh? (?) but just like. one track minded (understandable btw something to prove being mvp however many times and yet. always falling short in the playoffs. just. yikes. for him. god. i feel so terrible for him 😬) but also. the entire beyonce thing 😭 hilarious. the christmas thing where he kind of disappeared?? where the hell was he 😭 what was that hard knocks ep akdhsksk i forgot and like his presser clips that sometimes pop byyyy hes cute idc idc but like sorry if im jumping here and there here back to derrick a bit so i can lead back to lamar -> derricks super chill? or well. he’s sooooo sure of himself. hes 31. 8 years itl nothing rattles him. he knows what he wants. immovable. doesn’t quake that easy. but like stressing again: knows what he wants. pro bowl? sure. ravens because the quarterbacks lamar jackson? sure. like it doesn’t really take much to rattle him yk?? like as far as i can seeee auagahagh i don’t really see many clips of himmm though i did see him dance with zay i think?? cuteeeee whimsy showing up when urged with all these new guys he’s getting comfy with!!! and alsoooo ive seen him hype the ever living shittttt out of saquon!!! that’s some cute shit. signing into the ravens with some lowballed contract too i think?? says something abt him!! idk chill is a word id use abt him. his reaction to the probowl is still so fucking 😭 but again, knows what he wants. which: lamar. who, again: one track minded, gets incredibly shitty jokey jokes at the most random of times, mentions his mother cussing him out shamelessly, jokes about going out to see beyonce during halftime, cannot help himself mentioning a meme from a reporters name, etc etc and also. gives me the vibes of. not really catching anyone putting down any moves on him. because he thinks they’re just appreciating his quarterbacking. and derricks reallyyyyyyy good at that. hyping the everliving shittttt out of him. praising him on all platforms and straight to his face. from day one. coming into the ravens bc hes the qb. outright saying that so he knows exactly what to expect from derrick and what to do to level up to him. so like. super cute to think of derrick asking him out and lamar just. not clicking 😭 and lamar praising him right back toooooo 😭 all his shit being super technical while derricks just waiting. to be wooed back. because he’s thinking like. oh lamars pretty smart yk he knows what derrick wants and has been doing no way he doesn’t and he’s so fucking sure of himself no way lamar isn’t wanting him back but lamar isn’t fucking doing anythinggggg. he’s just. being a really good teammate. derrick hasn’t heard a single actual flirtatious thing that isn’t like. you’re really good at football that’s such a sexy run and he’s all that winona ryder confused math meme trying to think if that’s an actual pick up line but he’s seen lamar flirt in clubs to get better seats or better shelved drinks if the bartender doesnt recognize them damn it when the fuck is he getting the full experience. until it slowly dawns on him he doesn’t fucking realize that derrick has been outright fucking flirting with him. WHICH leads tooo a bit of lamar/kyle which is like only because of that one clip aksfaksl wait okay THIS IS A MESS UGH SORRY ->

lamar/kyle!!! i know not much about them tbh!!! just that kyle is fucking gorgeousssssssss and lamar is toooooo oh my god. oh my god that one clip. that one fucking clip. of kyle coming up to lamar. and back hugging him. wait let me fucking find it auagahsgsu IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST SHIT????? i am superrrrr into this dynamic of like. heavy devotion into your quarterback because of how fucking GOOD they are. like. tell me that entire fucking team isn’t the least bit besotted with lamar fucking jackson. (i have like. the slightest clue of the ravens roster tbh. sorry. i do the same shit with like. joe. all those boys. enamored with him. because he's so fucking good. argrhgrhh. see also: bryce lol) but that fucking clipppp the casual intimacyyyy the casual mindless way kyle trots to lamar talking to the coaches and slaps at his shoulder and decides to just latch on to him locking his wrists??? the hell is he doing??? CUTE. ARGHRGH. i didnt even know he moved this way btw 😭😭 and lamar's hands coming up to fumble distractedly at kyles wrists like did he even know. who that was. he didnt even really break a stride with his convo and no. 53 didnt even look at kyle weird?? do his guys usually just latch on to him like this. that's so cute the hell. i need to know more. do they do this often. hello. talk to me do they just latch on to him this often hello. hello. how many of his guys just have like. puppy crush on him. because this is what this is to me lmao like. a little hero worship. lamars ass doesn't see what this is 😭 he's fucking oblivious. (god you gotta tell me if I'm like reaching or off my fucking rockers or however the saying goes btw like again i got this out of Vibes) -> AND BACK TO DERRICK WHO SEES THIS ->

a little derrick seeing this from the corner of his eye. a little nudge to lamars belly. a little smirk. a little 'what he likes you?' 'what' 'what' 'what do you mean what' 'oh i see you’re a little dumb on things like this thats okay' 'on things like what what do you mean' 'its fine hey were still on this friday right' 'what yeah that fancy place on so so street right why is it so important that i wear a black tie anyway' 'because its supposed to be a date you dumbass god i really do have to spell it out for you' 'what' 'what what' '….what' AUAGHAHDHS CUTE CUTE no really you gotta tell me is my characterization right 😭 like. is it. help me. derrick seems so fucking sure of himself and like so fucking into lamar and lamar is like right back at derrick but!! well i guess for narratives sake im making it seem like lamars fucking oblivious lmaooo so. well.

hence -> yes next friday is a romantic formal dinner date lamar jackson. yes i am asking you out for an actual dinner date. as a romantic partner. that might end the night in making out. and sex, even, if you put out on, like, the sixth date if you actually realize that that's the sixth date—yes, that will be the sixth date, it’s okay, don’t worry about it. no, i won’t slow down, don’t run away. no yes of course you've never run away from something once in your life. yes, we can kiss now, c'mere. 

and do not. get me started. on all of lamar’s fucking reaction. to derrick’s running. and also i think i saw an interview clip of derrick calling lamar L………did i hallucinate that...............also the locker room pics 😭😭 girl derrick pull down your fucking jersey oh my godddd why is he like this why are there so many fucking pics of them just side by side or like shaking?? hands??? idk just in the presence of each other and is it the mandela effect why do i keep recalling him with his tummy out. (vs demure ass lamar covered head to toe idk i feel like i constantly see him in full gear?? is he like easily cold or like is that a stylistic choice or like. is that the norm with him or. like. am i just used to him wearing a shiesty during winter.)

apologies if this is like. more of a mess than my usual answer to asks 😔 whole other ship more unknown to me and like. typed this in my phone instead of on my laptop. answered in between classes which is where i am at life now apparently damn it is that the status quo now fuckjddkjsksksks

also shot myself in the foooottttt lmaoooo complaining abt not getting any jjkoc asks 😭 thank you for sending me asks i am ECSTATICCCCCC to be answering those but damn. when the fuck am i finishing this class 😃 SORRY FOR CONSTANTLY COMPLAINING ABOUT IT BTW SOMEWHERE EVERYWHERE IN THIS BLOG BUT LIKE. FUCK IS THIS SHITTTTT AUGHGUGHUGHUGHUGH abt to kms

[whencyclopedia]

Etowah Mounds

Etowah Mounds (also known as Etowah Indian Mounds) is a National Historic Landmark and archaeological site near Cartersville, Georgia, USA, enclosing the ruins of a prehistoric Native American city whose original name is unknown. The present designation of Etowah means "town" in the language of the Muscogee-Creek Native Americans.

The city was built in three phases between c. 1000 - c. 1550 and the present site encloses three large and three smaller mounds surrounding a central plaza. The three large mounds were the chief’s residence (Mound A), the ceremonial site for religious rituals (Mound B), and the burial site for the nobility (Mound C); the smaller mounds are each attached or nearby the larger. Between the three was a plaza, which served for ceremonies, commerce, and as a ball field.

The city was built and flourished during the period known as the Mississippian culture (c. 1100-1540 CE) when many of the best-known mound sites in North America – such as Cahokia and Moundville – were also constructed. The city seems to have developed from a small village community of the Woodland Period (c. 500 BCE - 1100 CE) whose inhabitants were related to those who built Etowah and the later Creek and Muskogee Native American tribes of the region who lived in and near the site.

The Cherokee Nation arrived in the region from the north in the 15th century CE and settled at Etowah, but they, like many others in the area, had their numbers depleted by European diseases they had no immunity to. The Creek and Cherokee remained on the land, however, until gold was discovered in the region and they were forcibly removed to Oklahoma by order of President Andrew Jackson (served 1829-1837) in the 1830s, a tragic loss of land and heritage to the First Nations through the forced migration that has come to be known as the Trail of Tears.

The mounds were first noted by Americans in 1817 and test-sited in 1883 but no major excavations were begun until 1925 when the famous (or infamous) archaeologist Warren K. Moorehead (l. 1866-1939) arrived at the site. Moorehead’s work on Mound C – the most completely excavated area of the site to date – unearthed a number of significant artifacts which enabled the dating of the site to the Mississippian culture period. Excavations since Moorehead’s have been sporadic, but it is believed, based on what has been found and the general preservation of the site, that Etowah is the most intact of the Mississippian culture mound sites of the southeast built by the ancestors of the Muscogee-Creek Nation.

The Mound Builders & Mississippian Culture

The Mississippian culture is often cited as though it were the beginning of monumental mound-building, but mounds were built thousands of years before in North America. Watson Brake Mounds dates to c. 3500 BCE and Poverty Point to c. 1700-1100 BCE, with the Mississippian culture’s mounds following. The Mississippian culture has become the best known and most closely associated with mound-building, however, owing to the proliferation of mounds prior to that period and the skill of the people of the Adena culture (c. 800 BCE - 1 CE) and the Hopewell culture (c. 100 BCE-500 CE) who perfected mound-building and provided the model for later works such as the famous Mississippian Cahokia Mounds and Moundville.

Many mounds were constructed during the Archaic Period (c. 8000-1000 BCE) and the Woodland Period (c. 500 BCE - 1100 CE), but these differed from the later Mississippian culture sites, such as Etowah, in that those of the Adena were conical while those of the Hopewell were either effigy or flat-topped mounds. The Mississippian culture borrowed from both traditions in the creation of their mounds which were influenced, at least in part, by the religious beliefs spread throughout the region by the Hopewell culture.

Continue reading...

[therainingkiwi]

Train travel in The Lightning Thief/PJO TV season 1

Oh look, I'm overanalyzing fictional train travel because I'm one of Those neurodivergent people. Let's get into it. Warning for VERY minor book spoilers (just mentioning the names of all the cities our trio travels through).

TL; DR our trio's cross country travel route makes no sense at all.

In the first book/season of the Percy Jackson series, our main trio takes a cross-country trip from Long Island, NY, to Los Angeles, CA. In the beginning, it appears as if they've boarded a cross country bus that will drive them the whole way there (a trip that usually takes ~72 hours). However, they get derailed in rural New Jersey (presumably the northwestern part of the state).

After New Jersey, the action immediately skips ahead, and we next see our trio on an LA-bound train that's about to stop in St. Louis (and in the book, has a later stop in Denver).

So, just off the bat: the train route that the trio are taking doesn't exist IRL (assuming they board a train in Trenton, and that train stops in St. Louis, Denver, and Los Angeles). It's also impossible for a single person to travel that route for $200, much less three people. Chiron needs some up to date information about cross country travel prices.

If they were traveling a reasonable IRL amtrak route, they'd probably take the Cardinal from Trenton to Chicago, and then take the Southwest Chief from Chicago to LA. However, if they can get back to Penn Station from Aunty Em's, they could take the Lake Shore Limited from NYC to Chicago, which would be 7-8 hours shorter than getting to Chicago via the Cardinal.

They could also take a bus from north New Jersey to Chicago.

However, the Southwest Chief (most direct amtrak route to LA) stops at neither St. Louis nor Denver. The most notable cities along the route are Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff.

If they wanted to take a route to LA that had them pass thru St. Louis, they could take the Texas Eagle from Chicago to St. Louis to San Antonio, and then take the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to LA. There are 3 trains per week that make this two-leg trip without requiring travelers to transfer at San Antonio, so our trio are probably on one of those. Why they didn't take the (shorter, cheaper, and more frequent) Southwest Chief is a mystery, honestly.

Since Chicago is the USA Amtrak hub, most routes will pass thru that city. The only alternative route is taking the Crescent from Trenton to New Orleans and then taking the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to LA. This would take them nowhere near Denver or St Louis, but probably wouldn't have a significant time/price difference from routing the trip thru Chicago (assuming they travel direct from Chicago to LA rather than taking the Texas Eagle thru San Antonio).

Unfortunately, there are no trains in the USA that travel between St. Louis and Denver (or even between St. Louis and Colorado in general), so that leg of their trip would have been made via bus. Greyhound (the USA's main long-distance bus travel company) has buses directly from St. Louis to Denver that end in California (but in San Francisco rather than LA).

In conclusion, I propose a new Amtrak route called "The Lightning Thief" that travels from New York-Penn Station, down the Northeast corridor thru New Jersey, and then turns west, making major stops in St. Louis, Denver, and Las Vegas, before terminating in LA. It doesn't stop in Amtrak's Chicago hub because all hub-and-spoke transit systems should have rim routes, and because Chicago isn't mentioned in The Lightning Thief.

Also, in conclusion, the USA needs better rail infrastructure and I'm a fucking nerd.

Amtrak map below for reference.

[on-my-vigilante-sht]

Masterlist

The Hunger Games

Finnick Odair

You’re Losing Me

Inspired by Taylor Swift’s “You’re Losing Me.” How Finnick loses the best thing he’s ever had.

Haymitch Abernathy

Capitol Punishment Masterlist

A story in which Haymitch’s lover is a plaything for the Capitol

I'm Sorry

Moments of Haymitch having to mentor his ex-girlfriend

Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus

Luke Castellan

Follow Me

Luke's girlfriend is excited to finally become a year-round camper so she can spend it with him. But Luke has other plans for them.

Delicate

"Is it chill that you're in my head? / Cause I know that it’s delicate"

Competing With Gods

When Apollo is sent to camp as a punishment, he sets his sights on Luke's girlfriend.

The Way I Loved You

"But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain / And it's 2 a.m. and I'm cursing your name / So in love that you act insane"

The Final Quest

How a quest with the love of Luke's life turned him away from the gods

Asshole Instructor

Luke has been an asshole but he can't help it until he realizes the girl he likes could be gone any minute

Mine

"You are the best thing that's ever been mine"

Apollo

Immortal Danger

Apollo marries a half-blood without realizing how dangerous it can be

Immortal Danger II

Despite an extravagant wedding, Apollo is still confronted by those who want to end his marriage

John Wick

Forced Love Masterlist

Arranged marriages aren't uncommon in the crime world but John Wick never expected to be forced into one with his boss' daughter.

Criminal Minds

Aaron Hotchner

Undercover in a Skin Tight Skirt

The BAU Chief isn’t fond of sending his scantily clad wife in as bait

That Skirt

Smutty follow up to Undercover in a Skin Tight Skirt

I Can’t Leave

When the reader is forced into hiding, she’s desperate to inform her fiancé and his son

Move On

Rossi tells Aaron he should move on

Moving on to You

Aaron finally tells his longtime crush about his feelings when he almost loses her (Sequel to Move On)

Sparring Matches

The BAU undergoes PT evaluations, that includes sparring matches. And in the ring will be the secret couple, tipping off the rest of the team

Home Sweet Home

Sometimes going home isn’t always a good thing. Especially when your hometown is obsessed with marriage and you have a secret boyfriend.

"You're Okay"

After Aaron and his agent are saved from captivity, she grapples with returning to her regular life with her husband when the only person she wants to be around is Aaron.

Spencer Reid

Erotomania

Spencer’s girlfriend has a stalker

Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon

Sandor Clegane/Robb Stark

Between a Wolf and a Hound I

Sandor Clegane was never naïve enough to think he could marry the king's daughter but it doesn't make it any easier to see her married off.

Between a Wolf and a Hound II

The new Lady of the North tries to cope with the fact that she is now married and has a responsibility to her husband.

Robb Stark

The Godswood

When the newest Lady of the North is chased into the woods, the lords of the north search for Robb Stark's wife

Cregan Stark

Wrong Person (College AU!)

Aemond's girlfriend has a group project with the man he hates the most, Cregan Stark.

Forgiveness

Cregan begs for his wife’s forgiveness when he accidentally injures her

The Wall

When Cregan is forced to bring his wife to the Wall, he tries to ensure her protection but does not hesitate to defend her honor when necessary.

Grey’s Anatomy

Mark Sloan

Haunted

Mark finally finds where his wife has been hiding

Twilight

Carlisle Cullen

Sorry to Meet You

The moral dilemma of the patriarch of the Cullen clan finally meeting his mate after 350 years

Attack on Titan

Levi Ackerman

Amnesia

When the Levi Squad goes out on a mission with a few rookies, accidents happen

Favoritism

Captain Levi wouldn't let his feelings for a scout under him get in the way of his professionalism, right?

Reiner Braun

Guard

When Reiner returns from his ten year long mission, he is assigned to protect the the woman he could never have.

[mariacallous]

The Justice Department delivered part of special counsel Jack Smith’s report to Congress early Tuesday morning, explaining his charging decisions related to the probe into now-President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election leading up to and during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The report was originally intended to include information about Smith’s prosecution of Trump for his alleged illegal retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. But because the case is still active against two of Trump’s co-defendants, Attorney General Merrick Garland agreed to keep those details under wraps for now. That case is likely to unravel entirely once Trump takes office, so it is highly unlikely that the public will ever see that information.

Smith explicitly says he believes the department had enough evidence to obtain and sustain a conviction were Trump to stand trial.

The 137-page document was first obtained by The New York Times.

“The Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind,” the document reads. “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

Trump was indicted in August 2023 on four felony charges connected to Jan. 6: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The latter charge was for allegations of intimidating voters as well as state and election officials.

Trump spent months filing motions to dismiss the election subversion case, invoking everything from vindictive prosecution to total immunity, but was eventually scheduled to go to trial in March 2024. He eventually raised the question of whether presidents were entitled to immunity from prosecution to the Supreme Court, leaving the case in a lurch for weeks until justices ruled, 6-3, that presidents are immune from prosecution for “official” acts and entitled to “presumptive immunity” for unofficial acts.

Smith revised and narrowed the original indictment to reflect the Supreme Court’s interpretation of immunity rules. His revised indictment would have forced Trump to defend certain conduct, including his speech from the Ellipse in Washington on Jan. 6 and his calls pressuring election officials to “find” votes for him, as “official” activity instead of campaign activity.

But Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November sealed the case’s fate: It was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be brought again at a later date. Since Justice Department guidance recommends that sitting presidents cannot be sentenced, however, Smith backed off.

In the report, Smith defended the investigation from its inception, writing that Trump’s “unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power” after he lost the 2020 election “compelled” prosecutors to act.

“Indeed, Mr. Trump’s cases represented ones ‘in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof most certain,’” Smith wrote, quoting a passage from the 1940 text “The Federal Prosecutor” by Robert Jackson, once the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials for Nazis.

Without regard for politics, “or the possible personal or professional consequences of a prosecution for me or any member of his office,” Smith said, investigators had “one north star.”

It was “to follow the facts and law wherever they led,” the now-former special counsel wrote. “Nothing more and nothing less.”

Smith, once the leader of the Justice Department’s public integrity division, said his office stands “fully” behind the decision to charge Trump because “to have done otherwise on the facts developed during our work would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and a public servant. After nearly 30 years of public service, that is a choice I could not abide.”

The report is divided into several sections, with much of it reiterating allegations Smith laid out in the revised indictment last August, but the final report also contains explanations for why prosecutors opted against charging Trump with other crimes, including crimes under the Insurrection Act.

In U.S. history, there is little legal precedent available to help prosecutors interpret that law. To charge Trump, they would need to first define that what unfolded at the Capitol was unequivocally an insurrection against the authority of the U.S. and its laws. Then, they would need to prove that Trump incited the insurrection, assisted it or provided comfort to insurrectionists.

While courts have found that Jan. 6 was an insurrection and even described it as such, Smith said, prosecutors understood there was a keen “litigation risk that would be presented by employing this long dormant statute.”

Insurrections are defined generally as an uprising against a civil or political authority or established government. Other definitions, including legal definitions, acknowledge that it can also be a “rout, riot or offense connected with mob violence,” the report notes.

Courts have also observed that insurrections typically involve overthrowing a sitting government, rather than maintaining power.

Observing this, prosecutors said, they saw “another challenge to proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Trump’s conduct on January 6 qualified as an insurrection given that he was sitting president at that time.”

As they pored over litigation involving insurrectionary acts in years past to draw the comparison to Trump, Smith said, prosecutors could not find a single case in which a criminal defendant was charged with insurrection for “acting within the government to maintain power, as opposed to overthrowing it or thwarting it from the outside.”

If Smith would have charged Trump with violating the Insurrection Act, it “would have been a first, which further weighed against charging it, given the available charges, even if there were reasonable arguments that might apply.”

No matter how “strong the proof that he incited or gave aid and comfort to those who attacked the Capitol,” Smith wrote, the path to charging him under the statute was too “fraught with uncertainty.”

A reasonable case could have been made by applying “incitement” standards, too, especially given the evidence that Trump knew the violence at the Capitol was foreseeable and “that he caused it,” Smith wrote. Trump understood the riot would benefit his plan to thwart the certification of the 2020 election, the report said, and he could use any disruption to leverage his position.

“But the Office did not develop direct evidence — such as an explicit admission or communication with co-conspirators— of Mr. Trump’s subjective intent to cause the full scope of the violence that occurred on Jan. 6,” Smith wrote.

The charges that were eventually applied were the best fit because they did not introduce untested legal theories and could be defended concretely before a jury.

[beardedmrbean]

Do they ever give up? Those looking to divvy up Americans by race, that is.

In California they tried to get race preferences approved in a 2020 referendum, but voters rejected it 57.2% to 42.8%. This was a stunning rebuke, not only because the rejection came from residents of a blue state but because the losing side had outspent opponents something like 14 to 1.

In 2023 the Supreme Court weighed in with a landmark ruling that barred colleges from treating people as members of a racial group instead of as individuals—and cast constitutional doubt on all race-based preferences. “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. Couldn’t be clearer, right?

Not in California. Undaunted state Assemblyman Corey Jackson is pushing a bill called ACA7. It takes aim at the state ban on race preferences that voters put in the constitution in 1996 when they passed Proposition 209. Californians reaffirmed Proposition 209 three years ago at the ballot box.

The language the voters agreed to and the activists hate reads as follows: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” Unlike the 2020 effort, the new bill would leave that language intact. Instead, it would add a provision allowing the governor to create “exceptions.” Effectively that would gut the ban.

Apparently, the lesson the advocates of state-sponsored discrimination have taken from their defeat is that if at first you don’t succeed, try something sneakier.

Here is Mr. Jackson’s press release summarizing the bill: “ACA7 will allow . . . the Governor to issue waivers to public agencies that wish to use state funds for research-based, or research-informed and culturally specific interventions to increase life expectancy, improve educational outcomes, and lift people out of poverty for specific ethnic groups and marginalized genders.”

Gail Heriot is a University of San Diego law professor who sits on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and was a leader of both Proposition 209 and the “no” effort on the 2020 referendum. She has launched a petition with Extremely Concerned Californians at change.org opposing the measure.

“ACA7’s proponents are hoping that voters will be fooled into thinking that it is just a small exception,” Ms. Heriot says. “In fact, it gives the governor enormous power to nullify Proposition 209.”

Edward Blum agrees. As the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, he spearheaded the lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina that killed race preferences in college admissions.

“Racial preferences are never legally justified because some specious ‘research’ report concludes it would be beneficial to a certain race,” says Mr. Blum. “This exemption will trigger endless litigation that will polarize California citizens by race.”

But sowing discord is a feature, not a bug. As the bill was making its way through the Assembly, Mr. Jackson got in a spat with Bill Essayli—a Republican who is also the first Muslim elected to the Assembly. Mr. Essayli pointed out that the majority of Californian voters disagree with state-sanctioned discrimination. “I fundamentally disagree with this backwards policy,” he later tweeted.

Mr. Jackson responded in his own tweet: “This is a perfect example how a minority can become a white supremacist by doing everything possible to win white supremacist and fascist affection.”

ACA7 passed the state Assembly in September. If it passes the Senate, it will be on the ballot in November. If Californians vote yea, it will become part of the constitution.

But all is not lost. The 2020 referendum awakened a sleeping giant: the Asian-American community. Asian-Americans quickly realized (as the Harvard case drove home) that they and their children are the primary victims whenever race is substituted for merit. Asian-Americans are more aware and organized than they were in 2020. They aren’t likely to be fooled by talk of “exceptions” based on “research.”

It also isn’t a given that ACA7 will make it through the state Senate. Though Democrats enjoy a 32-8 majority, polls consistently show race preferences are unpopular. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s support will be crucial.

Though he has no formal role in the constitutional process, some think the bill will go nowhere if Mr. Newsom doesn’t want it to. If it does make it to the ballot this November, he’ll be under immense pressure to endorse it. That’s another reason the Senate should kill ACA7 now, Ms. Heriot says.

“California voters need to make sure their state senators know where they stand—through emails, phone calls, letters, and petitions,” Ms. Heriot says. “Once the senators understand that, they will realize putting ACA7 on the ballot is not in their interest.”

[gentle-giant-swag]

HELLO EVERYONE! I SHALL NOW REVEAL THE BRAKCETS

First up

Wait

MOST FUCKABLE GENTLE GIANT

The A bracket (finished)

Battle 1-16

(most submissions in form 1 and most submissions in form b)

Starts Friday the 9th of June. 5pm CET. The brackets will be posted between the 9-10th of June.

Side A, 9th of June. 5pm to 8pm cet

Raphael Hamato (rise of the TMNT) vs Totoro (my neighbor Totoro)

Heavy (team fortress 2) vs Big Friendly Giant (BFG)

King Dedede (Kirby) vs Scorpia (She-ra)

Bismuth (Steven universe) vs Susan Murphy (monsters vs aliens)

Fezzik (the princess bride) vs Dick Gumshoe (ace attorney)

Master Chief (halo) vs Bumblebee (bumblebee)

Big Macintosh (my little pony: friendship is magic) vs Massimo Marcovaldo (Luca)

The titan (the owl house) vs Tyson (Percy Jackson)

Side B, 10th of June, 5pm to 8pm CET

Ivan Bruel (miraculous ladybug) vs Asahi Azumane (haikyuu)

Takeo Goda (ore monogatari) vs Caduceus Clay (critical role)

Milly Thompson (tri-gun) vs Sandy (Lego monkie kid)

Jaguar D. Saul vs Jean Bart (one piece)

Komamura (bleach) vs William Ellis (identity v)

Beelzebub (obey me) vs Kazanari Genjuurou (symphogear)

Senri (plus anima) vs Murakumo (rune factory 5)

Holly (super lesbian animal rpg) vs Brutus Feels (Kane and feels)

The B bracket (finished)

Battles 17-32

Characters who have returned from the spring bracket and from fandoms I’ve personally interacted with. So the spring bracket but we blacklisted big man

Date: Tuesday 13/6 to Wednesday 14/6, between 5pm to 8pm CET

Side A (Tuesday)

The iron giant vs Baymax (big hero 6)

Gonta gokuhara (danganronpa) vs Jonathan Joestar (JoJo’s bizarre adventure)

Dj (total drama) vs Yasutora “Chad” Sado (bleach

Muriel (the arcana) vs Jasmine (total drama)

Subject Delta (bioshock) vs aaarrrgghh (trollhunters)

Klaus Von Reinherz (kekkai sensen) vs Asterios (fate grand order)

Hunk (Voltron) vs Gooliope Jellington (monster high)

Dragonite (Pokémon) vs Asgore Dreemurr (undertale)

Side B (Wednesday)

Alphonse Elric vs Major Lewis Armstrong (full metal alchemist)

Urbosa (legend of Zelda) vs Glamrock Freddy (five nights at Freddy’s)

Milla Vodello vs Helmut Fullbear (psychonauts)

Dedue Molinaro vs Raphael Kirsten (fire emblem: three houses)

Winston vs B.O.B (overwatch)

Kanji Tatsumi (persona) vs Common Wubbox (my singing monsters)

Mordecai vs Muarim (fire emblem: gay rights path of radiance/radiant dawn)

Minsc & Boo (baldur’s gate) vs Big the cat (sonic the hedgehog)

C BRACKET (ongoing)

Battles 33-48

Those who fell in between the A and the D bracket. So this one has some pretty chaotic matchups

Date: Sunday the 18th to Monday the 19th, 5pm to 8pm cet

A bracket: Sunday

Nicholas St North (rise of the guardians) vs Grear Danes (irl)

Falkor the good luck dragon (the never ending story) vs Susan Strong (adventure time)

Grandpa Max (Ben 10) vs Cerberus (Greek mythology)

Kiryu Kazuma (yakuza) vs Dr Joshua Strongbear Sweet (Atlantis)

Fatgum (my hero academia) vs Takashi Morinozuka (ouran highschool host club)

Will Powers (ace attorney) vs Luther (Detroit: become human)

The Tick (the tick 1994) vs Evan Buck Buckley (911 on fox)

Riki Nendou (saiki k) vs Hearts Boxcars (homestuck)

Side B (Monday)

Shirahoshi vs Tony Tony Chopper (one piece)

Jetfire/skyfire (transformers) vs Indus Tarbella (epithet erased)

Sisyphus (hades) Vs Grog Strongjaw (critical role)

Hugo the abominable snowman (looney tunes) vs Aone Takanobu (Haikyuu)

Android 16 (dragon ball) vs Tiny (ever after high)

Wrecker (Star Wars: the bad batch) vs K (virtues last reward)

Goldlewis Dickinson vs Potemkin (guilty gear)

Yasha Nydoorin (critical role) vs Lily Bowen (fall out)

D BRACKET

Battles 49-64

Aka the one where the contestants sadly got the least amount of votes)

Date: Thursday 22/6th to Friday 23/6th 5pm to 8pm CET

Side A: Thursday

lain chu (dragon hunters) vs Panda (tekken)

Isaroth (genshin impact) vs Bizarro (DC red hood and the outlaws)

Jienji (Inuyasha) vs Jackie Wells (cyberpunk 2077)

Looks to the moon (rain world) vs Jogu (naruto)

Bane Perez (identify V) vs Zinnia (super lesbian animal rpg)

Vulkanon (rune factory 4) vs Argus (Greek mythology)

Mountain (ark knights) vs Taiga Saejima (yakuza)

Abbi (Omori) vs Gorem (bakugan)

SIDE B: Friday

Junko (storm hawks) vs Hajin (monstress)

Gylph (super lesbian animal RPG) vs Bongchun (Bongchun bride)

Fitz Fellow (detective grimoire) vs Bubbles (questionable content)

Dubo (omega strikers) vs Bob the titan (Percy Jackson)

Otto the giant water dog (wondla) vs Kurita Ryoukan (Eyeshield 21)

Mele the Horizons Roar (ishura) vs Gentle Bear (dog island)

The Selfish Giant vs Banjo Lilywhile (the hogfather)

Livio the double fang (trigun) vs Hank McCoy (x-men)

I will make propaganda master posts and if you want to add, just use the ask box or dm me with propaganda for one of the characters who’s going to participate. But that’s all!

May the best gentle giant WIN!

SECOND CHANCE BATTLES FOR ROUND 1

27/6, apricot bracket

Battle 1

Battle 2

Battle 3

Battle 4

29/2, shavedown of the apricot bracket

The battle

1/7, blueberry bracket

Battle 1

Battle 2

Battle 3

Battle 4

3/7, shavedown

The battle

4/7, citron bracket

Battle 1

Battle 2

Battle 3

Battle 4

5/7, shavedown

7/7, durian bracket

Battle 1

Battle 2

Battle 3

Battle 4

8/7, shavedown

The (un)official GGSmod messed up someone’s name post

The crime list

Ask game

[ifreakingloveroyals]

10 July 2011 | Chief Executive of Tusk Trust Charlie Mayhew and Meredith Ogilvie-Thompson (at rear, Tusk USA), Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge laugh as they attend a reception to mark the Launch of Tusk Trust's US Patron's Circle in Beverley Hill, California. The newly married Royal Couple are on the final day of their first joint overseas tour to the USA. They arrived on Friday after spending 9 days in Canada. The couple started off their tour of North America by joining millions of Canadians in taking part in Canada Day celebrations which mark Canada's 144th Birthday. (c) Chris Jackson - Pool/Getty Images

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Trudy Ring at The Advocate:

Twenty-six Republican state attorneys general are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the anti-transgender sports laws in Idaho and West Virginia. The AGs of Idaho and West Virginia have already asked the high court to review rulings that blocked them from enforcing their laws barring trans athletes from competing under their gender identity in school sports. The justices, who are in recess for the summer, haven’t said if they’ll take the case. The AGs calling on the court to uphold the laws filed friend-of-the-court briefs, known formally as amicus curiae, August 14. Such briefs are filed by people and organizations that are not directly involved in a case but want to express an opinion on it. The attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming signed on to the Idaho brief, and the same ones, with the exception of West Virginia and the addition of Idaho, signed on to the West Virginia brief — that’s because Idaho and West Virginia, respectively, are the states directly involved.

They assert that such laws are needed to assure equal opportunities for cisgender girls and women in sports. “Amici States all have laws or policies like Idaho’s that restrict girls’ sports teams to biological females,” the Idaho brief reads. “Basing the distinction on biology rather than gender identity makes sense because it is the differences in biology — not gender identity — that call for separate teams in the first place: Whatever their gender identity, biological males are, on average, stronger and faster than biological females. If those average physical differences did not matter, there would be no need to segregate sports teams at all.”

[...]

Arkansas AG Tim Griffin and Alabama AG Steve Marshall are the leaders in filing the briefs. “Like Arkansas, West Virginia has a strong interest in safeguarding the benefits of equal access to athletic opportunities for women and girls,” Griffin said in a press release. “They deserve the opportunity to shine on a level playing field. Biological males should not be robbing females of their opportunity to compete for athletic accolades or scholarships, nor should they be threatening the safety of women in competition. I will continue fighting to protect girls’ sports teams and the opportunities of female athletes.” In Idaho, Lindsay Hecox, a trans woman track athlete at Boise State University, filed a suit challenging the state's law, the first in the nation, shortly after Republican Gov. Brad Little signed it in 2020, along with Kayden Hulquist, a then-senior at Boise High School who is cisgender and was concerned about being subjected to the law’s invasive “sex verification” testing. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Idaho affiliate, Legal Voice, and Cooley LLP.

Idaho Chief U.S. District Court Judge David C. Nye issued an injunction blocking the ban in August 2020. He noted that it appears to be on shaky constitutional ground. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed his action in 2023. In West Virginia, trans girl Becky Pepper-Jackson, then 11, filed suit challenging the law in 2021, represented by the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and a private law firm. U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin that year issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking enforcement of the law and said she could try out for girls’ sports, noting that the suit “seeks relief only insofar as this law applies to her.” Goodwin also wrote that Pepper-Jackson, who is on puberty-blocking drugs, “has shown that she will not have any inherent physical advantage over the girls she would compete against on the girls’ cross country and track teams. Further, permitting B.P.J. to participate on the girls’ teams would not take away athletic opportunities from other girls.”

26 Republican AGs ask the MAGA majority on SCOTUS to uphold Idaho and West Virginia’s laws banning trans people from playing sports competitions matching their gender identity.

[iwanthermidnightz]

As Taylor Swift rolled into Los Angeles this week, the frenzy surrounding her record-breaking Eras Tour was already in high gear.

Headlines gushed that she had given $100,000 bonuses to her crew. Politicians asked her to postpone her concerts in solidarity with striking hotel workers. Scalped tickets were going for $3,000 and up. And there were way, way too many friendship bracelets to count.

These days, the center of an otherwise splintered music world can only be Taylor Swift.

The pop superstar’s tour, which is now finishing its initial North American leg with six nights at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles, has been a both a business and a cultural juggernaut. Swift’s catalog of generation-defining hits and canny marketing sense have helped her achieve a level of white-hot demand and media saturation not seen since the 1980s heyday of Michael Jackson and Madonna — a dominance that the entertainment business had largely accepted as impossible to replicate in the fragmented 21st century.

“The only thing I can compare it to is the phenomenon of Beatlemania,” said Billy Joel, who attended Swift’s show in Tampa, Fla., with his wife and young daughters.

In a summer of tours by stars like Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Morgan Wallen and Drake, Swift’s stands apart, in numbers and in media noise. Although Swift, 33, and her promoters do not publicly report box-office figures, the trade publication Pollstar estimated that she has been selling about $14 million in tickets each night. By the end of the full world tour, which is booked with 146 stadium dates well into 2024, Swift’s sales could reach $1.4 billion or more — exceeding Elton John’s $939 million for his multiyear farewell tour, the current record-holder.

Swift has now had more No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 over the course of her career than any other woman, surpassing Barbra Streisand. With the tour lifting Swift’s entire body of work, she has placed 10 albums on that chart this year and is the first living artist since the trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert in 1966 to have four titles in the Top 10 at the same time.

“It’s a pretty amazing feat,” Alpert, 88, said in a phone interview. “With the way radio is these days, and the way music is distributed, with streaming, I didn’t think anyone in this era could do it.”

But how did a concert tour become so much more: fodder for gossip columns, the subject of weather reports, a boon for friendship-bracelet beads — the unofficial currency of Swiftie fandom — and the reason nobody could get a hotel room in Cincinnati at the end of June?

“She is the best C.E.O., and best chief marketing officer, in the history of music,” said Nathan Hubbard, a longtime music and ticketing executive who co-hosts a Swift podcast. “She is following people like Bono, Jay-Z and Madonna, who were acutely aware of their brands. But of all of them, Taylor is the first one to be natively online.”

Before Eras, Swift hadn’t been on tour since 2018. And her catalog has grown by seven No. 1 albums since then, fueled in part by three rerecorded “Taylor’s Versions” of her first LPs — a project hailed by Swift’s fans as a crusade to regain control of her music, though it is also an act of revenge after the sale of Swift’s former record label, a move that, she said, “stripped me of my life’s work.”

“Folklore” and “Evermore” expanded her palate into fantastical indie-folk and brought new collaborators into the fold: Aaron Dessner from the band the National and Justin Vernon, a.k.a. Bon Iver, rock-world figures who helped attract new listeners.

The other major tour this year that is enticing fans to book transcontinental flights, and to show up costumed and in rapture, is also by a woman: Beyoncé, 41, whose Renaissance tour is a fantasia of disco and retrofuturism. Like Swift, she is also a trailblazing artist-entrepreneur, maintaining tight control over her career and fostering a rich connection with fans online. Together with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” a critique of the patriarchy told in hot pink, they are signs of powerful women ruling the discourse of pop culture.

But in music, at least, the scale and success of Swift’s tour is without equal. Later this month, after completing 53 shows in the United States, she will kick off an international itinerary of at least 78 more before returning to North America next fall. Beyoncé’s full tour has 56 dates; Springsteen’s, 90. (Recently, Harry Styles wrapped a 173-date tour in arenas and stadiums, grossing about $590 million.)

Outside Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, fans posed for selfies and shared their ticketing ordeals. Esmeralda Tinoco and Sami Cytron, 24-year-old former sorority sisters, said they had paid $645 for two seats. A stone’s throw away, Karlee Patrick and Emily DeGruson, both 18 and dressed as a pair in angel/devil costumes after a line in Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” sat “Taylorgating” at the edge of the parking lot; they said they had paid $100 for parking but couldn’t afford tickets.

As Swift’s opening acts finished, the crowd rushed in. Glaser, the comedian, later said that of the eight shows she had been to, her favorites were the ones where she had brought her mother — and converted her to Swiftie fandom.

“Everyone is in love with her,” Glaser said her mom told her after one show in Texas. “Now I get it.”

[svalleynow]

High School Recap for Games Played on Sept. 20

Last week, the Sequatchie County Indians stuffed a 2-point conversion attempt by South Pittsburg with less than a minute remaining to hold on for a one-point win. On Friday night, the Indians pulled off a huge upset over the state’s 2nd-ranked Class 2-A team, the Marion County Warriors, 13-10. Will Machado hit a 39-yard field goal as time expired for Sequatchie County. Sequatchie senior…

[tomorrowusa]

Sandra Day O'Connor died Friday at the age of 93. She was the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. Although she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, her approach was more centrist than his and she was often the swing vote on the court.

After her retirement from SCOTUS in 2006, President George W. Bush appointed the hard right Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor. In 2022 Alito was the driving force behind the dismantling of Roe v. Wade.

Justice O’Connor joined the controlling opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that, to the surprise of many, reaffirmed the core of the constitutional right to abortion established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade. To overrule Roe “under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a watershed decision,” she wrote in a joint opinion with Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and David H. Souter, “would subvert the court’s legitimacy beyond any serious question.” Last year, the court did overrule Roe, casting aside Justice O’Connor’s concern for precedent and the court’s public standing. In his majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Alito wrote that Roe and Casey had “enflamed debate and deepened division.” Justice O’Connor also wrote the majority opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 decision upholding race-conscious admissions decisions at public universities, suggesting that they would not longer be needed in a quarter-century. In striking down affirmative action programs in higher education in June, the Supreme Court beat her deadline by five years. [ ... ] Justice O’Connor was also an author of a key campaign finance opinion, McConnell v. Federal Election Commission in 2003. A few years after Justice Alito replaced her, the Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote in 2010, overruled a central portion of that decision in the Citizens United case.nge? A few days later, at a law school conference, Justice O’Connor reflected on the development. “Gosh,” she said, “I step away for a couple of years and there’s no telling what’s going to happen.” [ ... ] She held the crucial vote in many of the court’s most polarizing cases, and her vision shaped American life for her quarter century on the court. Political scientists stood in awe at the power she wielded. “On virtually all conceptual and empirical definitions, O’Connor is the court’s center — the median, the key, the critical and the swing justice,” Andrew D. Martin, Kevin M. Quinn and Lee Epstein and two colleagues wrote in a study published in 2005 in The North Carolina Law Review shortly before Justice O’Connor’s retirement.

Let this be a reminder that the direction of the Supreme Court depends on the President who appoints its members and the Senate which confirms them.

While we may not have warm and fuzzy feelings about Ronald Reagan, two of his three† appointments to SCOTUS were centrists. Of the six current justices appointed to the court by Republican presidents, one is a conservative and the other five are hardline reactionaries.

When voting for president or senator, we are indirectly also voting for SCOTUS justices who could be on the court for decades. We ought to keep that in mind when we hear people suggesting that we should cast "protest votes" for impotent third parties which have no chance of getting elected.

Remember that no 2024 Republican presidential candidate will nominate to the court somebody as relatively moderate as Sandra Day O'Connor.

† I count Rehnquist, who Reagan elevated from Associate to Chief Justice, as a Nixon appointee.

[ansburg]

— from Norman G. Finkelstein's Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (14-16) (text below)

Yet if, as I’ve suggested, broad agreement has been reached on the factual record, an obvious anomaly arises: what accounts for the impassioned controversy that still swirls around the Israel-Palestine conflict? To my mind, explaining this apparent paradox requires, first of all, that a fundamental distinction be made between those controver- sies that are real and those that are contrived. To illustrate real differences of opinion, let us consider again the Palestinian refugee question. It is possible for interested parties to agree on the facts yet come to diametrically opposed moral, legal, and political conclusions. Thus, as already mentioned, the scholarly consensus is that Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948. Israel’s leading historian on the topic, Benny Morris, although having done more than anyone else to clarify exactly what happened, nonetheless concludes that, morally, it was a good thing—just as, in his view, the “annihilation” of Native Americans was a good thing—that, legally, Palestinians have no right to return to their homes, and that, politically, Israel’s big error in 1948 was that it hadn’t “carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country—the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan” of Palestinians.9 However repellent morally, these clearly can’t be called false conclusions. Returning to the universe inhabited by normal human beings, it’s possible for people to concur on the facts as well as on their moral and legal implications yet still reach divergent political conclusions.

[...] Benny Morris, although approving the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and nearly pathological in his hatred of Palestinians,28 nonetheless anchors Palestinian opposition to Jewish settlement in a perfectly rational, uncomplicated motive: “The fear of territorial displacement and dispossession was to be the chief motor of Arab antagonism to Zionism.”29 What’s remarkable about this formulation isn’t so much what’s said but, rather, what’s not said: there’s no invoking of “Arab anti-Semitism,” no invoking of “Arab fears of modernity,” no invoking of cosmic “clashes.” There’s no mention of them because, for understanding what happened, there’s no need of them—the obvious explanation also happens to be a sufficient one. Indeed, in any comparable instance, the sorts of mystifying clichés commonplace in the Israel-Palestine conflict would be treated, rightly, with derision. In the course of resisting European encroachment, Native Americans committed many horrendous crimes. But to understand why doesn’t require probing the defects of their character or civilization. Criticizing the practice, in government documents, of reciting Native American “atrocities,” Helen Hunt Jackson, a principled defender of Native Americans writing in the late nineteenth century, observed: “[T]he Indians who committed these ‘atrocities’ were simply ejecting by force, and, in the contests arising from this forcible ejectment, killing men who had usurped and stolen their lands. …What would a community of white men, situated precisely as these Cherokees were, have done?”30

To apprehend the motive behind Palestinian “atrocities,” this ordinary human capacity for empathy would also seem to suffice. Imagine the bemused reaction were a historian to hypothesize that the impetus behind Native American resistance was “anti-Christianism” or “anti-Europeanism.” What’s the point of such exotic explanations—unless the obvious one is politically incorrect? Of course, back then, profound explanations of this sort weren’t necessary. The natives impeded the wheel of progress, so they had to be extirpated; nothing more had to be said. For the sake of “mankind” and “civilization,” Theodore Roosevelt wrote, it was “all-important” that North America be won by a “masterful people.” Although for the indigenous population this meant “the infliction and suffering of hideous woe and misery,” it couldn’t have been otherwise: “The world would probably not have gone forward at all, had it not been for the displacement or submersion of savage and barbaric peoples.” And again: “The settler and pioneer have at bottom justice on their side: this great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages.”

It was only much later, after the humanity of these “squalid savages” was ratified—in any event, formally—that more sophisticated rationales became necessary. In the case of the United States, the “hideous woe and misery” inflicted could be openly acknowledged because the fate of the indigenous population was, figuratively as well as literally, in large part a dead issue. In the case of Palestine it’s not, so all manner of elaborate explanation has to be contrived in order to evade the obvious. The reason Benny Morris’s latest pronouncements elicited such a shocked reaction is that they were a throwback to the nineteenth century. Dispensing with the ideological cloud making of contemporary apologists for Israel, he justified dispossession on grounds of the conflict between “barbarians” and “civilization.” Just as, in his view, it was better for humanity that the “great American democracy” displaced the Native Americans, so it is better that the Jewish state has displaced the Palestinians. “There are cases,” he baldly states, “in which the overall, final good justifies harsh and cruel acts that are committed in the course of history.” Isn’t this Roosevelt speaking? But one’s not supposed to utter such crass things anymore.32 To avoid outraging current moral sensibilities, the obvious must be papered over with sundry mystifications. The elementary truth that, just as in the past, the “chief motor of Arab antagonism” is “[t]he fear of territorial displacement and dispossession”—a fear the rational basis for which is scarcely open to question, indeed, is daily validated by Israeli actions—must, at all costs, be concealed. To evade the obvious, another stratagem of the Israel lobby is playing The Holocaust and “new anti-Semitism” cards. In a previous study, I examined how the Nazi holocaust has been fashioned into an ideological weapon to immunize Israel from legitimate criticism.33 In this book I look at a variant of this Holocaust card, namely, the “new anti-Semitism.” In fact, the allegation of a new anti-Semitism is neither new nor about anti-Semitism. Whenever Israel comes under renewed international pressure to withdraw from occupied territories, its apologists mount yet another meticulously orchestrated media extravaganza alleging that the world is awash in anti-Semitism. This shameless exploitation of anti-Semitism delegitimizes criticism of Israel, makes Jews rather than Palestinians the victims, and puts the onus on the Arab world to rid itself of anti-Semitism rather than on Israel to rid itself of the Occupied Territories.

9. Ari Shavit, “Survival of the Fittest,” interview with Benny Morris, Haaretz (9 January 2004). For perceptive commentary, see Baruch Kimmerling, “Is Ethnic Cleansing of Arabs Getting Legitimacy from a New Israeli Historian?” Tikkun (27 January 2004); for Morris’s recent pronouncements, see also Finkelstein, Image and Reality, pp. xxix–xxx. 28. He’s called the Palestinian people “sick, psychotic,” “serial killers” whom Israel must “imprison” or “execute,” and “barbarians” around whom “[s]omething like a cage has to be built.” See the Haaretz interview and the pages on Morris’s recent pronouncements in Image and Reality cited above. 29. Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–1999 (New York, 1999), p. 37. 30. Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor (New York, 1981), p. 265. 31. For these and similar formulations, see Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West (New York, 1889), 1:118–19, 121; 4:7, 54–56, 65, 200, 201. 32. In fact, one isn’t even allowed to remember that Roosevelt said them: one searches recent Roosevelt biographies in vain for any mention of the pronouncements of his just cited, or scores of others like them pervading his published writings and correspondence. 33. Finkelstein, Holocaust Industry.

[ausetkmt]

The "Negro Fort" massacre | libcom.org

This article is an excerpt of Wasserman's A People's History of Florida.

The Patriots War, the War of 1812, the Creek War, and the Seminole War were all closely interrelated conflicts, revolving around Indian Removal and slavery. The fighting in the U.S. Southeast during the second decade of the 19th century defined Manifest Destiny, which was underlined by a disposition to expand slavery and white supremacy. Manifest Destiny was the self-declared right of the United States to violate national sovereignty to eliminate any perceived threat of an encroaching foreign colonial power in its vicinity. This policy also intended to seize Spanish colonial possessions and annex them in order so the South could procure additional slave states. Indian Removal and slavery were combined with Manifest Destiny in the war of 1812 as British agents utilized disaffected native tribes and fugitive slaves to form a Southern front against the United States.

The wars in the Southeastern United States were all characterized by the same predisposition of U.S. expansionism – which itself was characterized by attempts to expand and protect slavery. The reigning U.S. doctrines of the early 19th century came about in opposition to the threat that slave and native sanctuaries like Florida posed to the Southern states. As the policies of Indian Removal and Manifest Destiny became more defined in the Southern theater of war, the free black and native settlements found themselves in a constant conflict with the slave-raiding, land-grabbing white settlers of Georgia.

After their defeat at Horseshoe Bend in the Creek War, the Red Stick Creeks fled into Florida to avoid Jackson’s draconian terms of surrender. Jackson’s military intervention in Florida partially focused on further destroying the anti-white Red Sticks Creeks that were incorporated into the Seminole and black settlements. As with the fugitive blacks, they grew to hold considerable power in the Seminole tribe, eventually enveloping the old chiefs.

In the war of 1812, the British used Florida as their base of operations to create a Southern front against the U.S. military. Florida was a diversion from the war in a North. British agents promised thousands of natives and fugitive blacks land, freedom, and protection as long as they fought on the British side in the war. The Seminoles, Miccosukees, Red Stick Creeks, and blacks established closer ties in these frontier operations, with the further understanding that they all shared a mutual interest to fend off the encroaching white settlers.

In 1814, British military official Col. Nichols ordered his Red Stick Creek allies to construct a fort on the Appalachicola River. The British retreated from their position at Pensacola after Andrew Jackson’s invasion. They were joined by their Red Stick Creek allies and several hundred slaves belonging to the residents of that town. 1 Nichols furnished the fort with artillery and munitions. The fort was located fifteen miles above the mouth of the river, manned with three hundred British soldiers and an immediate flow of refugee Seminoles and runaway slaves from Southern states who sought the protection of the British military and arms to defend their lands from white settlers. 2 The purpose of the fort was to assemble an army of disaffected indigenous people and runaway slaves to attack the white settlements on the southern Georgia/Alabama borders. By December 1814, over 1,400 warriors gathered at the fort – a coalition of refugee Red Stick Creeks, Seminoles, blacks, and numerous tribes indigenous to Florida. 3 General Gaines estimated 900 warriors and 450 armed blacks inhabited the fort. 4 The runaway slaves were given the opportunity to either leave for the British colonies to receive land as free settlers or fight under the British military. 5 By the early summer of 1815, Nichols left the Appalachicola for England accompanied by a handful of Red Stick Creek chiefs. He intended on making their cause known to the British Crown in hopes for protection against the Americans. The Red Stick Creeks and Seminole warriors who remained behind abandoned the fort soon afterwards. 6

Before Nichols had even left, the blacks had already taken possession of the fort. An additional 300 to 400 runaways were estimated to have fled to the fort for protection. 7

A letter from General Gaines on May 14th declared: “Certain Negroes and outlaws have taken possession of a Fort on the Appalachicola River in the territory of Florida.” 8

The Seminoles “were kept in awe” at the hundreds of armed blacks in the vicinity. “For a period,” William H. Simmons claimed, the Seminoles “were placed in the worst of all political conditions, being under a dulocracy or government of slaves.” 9

Nichols left behind a large supply of arms, artillery, and ammunition to protect the inhabitants from slave raiders and to commission raids on Southern plantations. They were supplied with 2,500 stands of musketry, 500 carbines, 500 steel scabbard swords, four cases containing 200 pistols, 300 quarter casks of rifle powder, 162 barrels of cannon powder, and a large count of military stores. On the walls of the fort were mounted four long twenty-four pounder cannon, four long six-pounder cannon, a four-pound field pierce, and a five and a half inch howitzer. 10

The fort grew from a strategically defensive base to a flourishing free black community around the banks of the Appalachicola. The blacks cultivated fields and plantations extending fifty miles up the river. Many of the black Seminoles were descendents of West Africans. They inherited generations of knowledge of African agricultural techniques. The community surrounding the fort was attractive for its defensible position and cultivatable lands. Runaway slaves were pouring in on a daily basis. The community grew to about 1,000 blacks in the fields surrounding the fort. 11

A total 300 black men, women, and children were in possession of the fort, accompanied by about twenty Choctaws and a number of Seminoles. 12

Joshua Giddings vividly depicted the “Negro Fort”:

“Their plantations extended along the river several miles, above and below the fort. Many of them possessed large herds of cattle and horses, which roamed in the forests, gathering their food, both in summer and winter, without expense or trouble to their owners. The Pioneer Exiles from South Carolina had settled here long before the Colony of Georgia existed. Several generations had lived to manhood and died in those forest-homes. To their descendants it had become consecrated by “many an oft told tale” of early adventure, of hardship and suffering; the recollection of which had been retained in tradition, told in story, and sung in their rude lays. Here were graves of their ancestors, around whose memories were clustered the fondest recollections of the human mind. The climate was genial. They were surrounded by extensive forests, and far removed from the habitations of those enemies of freedom who sought to enslave them; and they regarded themselves as secure in the enjoyment of liberty. Shutout from the cares and strifes of civilized men, they were happy in their own social solitude. So far from seeking to injure the people of the United States, they were only anxious to be exempt, and entirely free from all contact with our population or government; while they faithfully maintained their allegiance to the Spanish crown.” 13

Colonel Patterson wrote about the Appalachicola Fort:

“The force of the negroes was daily increasing; and they felt themselves so strong and secure that they had commenced several plantations on the fertile banks of the Appalachicola, which would have yielded them every article of sustenance, and which would, consequently, in a short time have rendered their establishment quite formidable and highly injurious to the neighboring States.” 14

The fort was becoming a growing threat to slavery itself. The existence of an autonomous free black community was intolerable alone, but it became a rallying point for runaway slaves fleeing from other Southern states. The blacks were less concerned about “committing depredations” as was depicted by U.S. military officials than they were about protecting their freedom.

As Giddings described, they were “happy in their own social solitude,” finally free and safe after decades of harassment and terror. They had the means for sufficient provisions with no reason to attack the frontier settlers. As much as the expansionists wished to depict them as outlaws they could not attribute them to even one instance of murder or theft. The crime they were guilty for was to “inveigle negroes from the citizens of Georgia, as well as from the Creek and Cherokee nations of Indians.” 15

Col. Patterson commended its elimination:“The service rendered by the destruction of the fort, and the band of negroes who held it, and the country in its vicinity, is of great and manifest importance to the United States, and particularly those States bordering on the Creek nation, as it had become the general rendezvous for runaway slaves and disaffected Indians; and asylum where they were assured of being received; a stronghold where they found arms and ammunition to protect themselves against their owners and the Government.” 16

As the blacks peacefully flourished in their isolated community on the Appalachicola, military officials and slaveholders planned its destruction. On May 21, a British “gentleman of respectability” from Bermuda wrote a memorandum disapproving Col Nichols for having “espoused the cause of the slaves.” He wrote of the “Negro Fort”: “No time ought to be lost in recommending the adoption of speedy, energetic measures for the destruction of a thing held so likely to become dangerous to the state of Georgia.” 17

On March 15, 1816 the Secretary of War ordered General Andrew Jackson to call attention to the governor of Pensacola to the fort. If the Spanish governor refused to “put an end to an evil of so serious nature,” the U.S. government would promptly take measures to reduce it. If the Spanish government was too weak to destroy it, then the U.S. was more than willing to take it into its own hands.

On April 23, Jackson transmitted the demands of Secretary Crawford, ordering the Spanish governor to “destroy or remove from out frontier this banditti, put an end to an evil of so serious a nature, and return to our citizens and friendly Indians inhabiting our territory those negroes now in said fort, and which have been stolen and enticed from them.”

The blacks at the Appalachicola Fort were supposedly “enticed from the service of their masters.” 18

Of course the runaways couldn’t have possibly been dissatisfied with a life of servitude. Jackson knew that the slaves were not actually stolen away.

They were runaways from slaveholders who sought refuge at the fort with the promise of abundance and freedom under the protection of the free blacks. Most of the black warriors and families had been free for generations.

Their ancestors had fled from their masters to Spanish Florida many decades before. Plus Jackson’s request to the Spanish governor only gave a façade of legitimacy to the inevitable designs of the U.S. government. On April 8, two weeks before Jackson wrote the Spanish governor, he ordered General Gaines to destroy the “Negro Fort” regardless of its location on Spanish territory:

“I have little doubt of the fact, that this fort has been established by some villains for rapine and plunder, and that it ought to be blown up, regardless of the land on which it stands; and if your mind shall have formed the same conclusion, destroy it and return the stolen Negroes and property to their rightful owners.” 19

General Gaines carefully prepared for the operation. He himself believed that the fort would “produce much evil among the blacks of Georgia, and the eastern part of the Mississippi territory.” 20

Obviously this terrible evil meant to leave their lifetime of bondage for a state of freedom. Lt. Col. Duncan Lamont Clinch was assigned to destroy the fort. Clinch had his own interests when it came to the fort, being among the most prosperous slaveholders of Florida. He undoubtedly felt that his profit interests were threatened by its continued existence. Gaines ordered him to speedily establish a fort near the junction of the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers, where they joined to form the Appalachicola, to intimidate the “Negro Fort.”

Clinch was to meet the convoy of supplies from New Orleans with fifty soldiers once he was informed that they had arrived at the river. The convoy was detached with two gunboats. From that point, Gaines ordered him to proceed to the “Negro Fort” where if he was to “meet with opposition” then “arrangements will immediately be made for its destruction.” Gaines wished to provoke an attack to justify the destruction of the fort. For this purpose, Clinch was supplied with two eighteen-pound cannons and one howitzer. 21

On July 10, the supply convoy reached the mouth of the Appalachicola where they received a dispatch from Col. Clinch ordering them to hold their position until he could arrive with troops to escort them up the river. On July 17, a party of five men from the supply vessels was sent to gather fresh water.

Once the party entered the river, they discovered a black man on the shore, near one of the plantations along the Appalachicola. As soon as they touched down on the shore, about forty blacks and Seminoles fired a volley of shots from their hidden position in the bushes. The black man on the beach served as a decoy to lure the small party into the ambush. Three of the men were immediately killed, one dove into the water and made it back to the convoy, and the other was captured. 22

On that same day, Col. Clinch commenced to the “Negro Fort.” He left with about 116 soldiers and incidentally met a party of slave-hunting Creeks led by Chief McIntosh. The Coweta Creeks numbered about 150. They had been hired by General Jackson to capture slaves in the Appalachicola - offered fifty dollars for every slave they seized and returned to their owner.

A council was held where the Creeks agreed to keep parties in advance and capture every black that they discovered. On the 19th, they caught a black Seminole in the vicinity heading to the Seminole chiefs with the scalp of one of the members of the party they ambushed. The blacks were attempting to garner the assistance of their Seminole allies.

The prisoner communicated the story of the ambush. On the 20th, Clinch proceeded with the Creek force over to the fort and came within gunshot range. It was impossible to destroy the fort without artillery.

They were forced to wait until the gunboats from the supply vessel arrived. McIntosh was ordered to surround the fort with a third of his force and maintain an irregular fire. The blacks fired artillery back but to no avail. On the 23rd, the Creeks demanded that the blacks surrender but they responded defiantly. The black commander Garcon told the deputation of Creeks “he would sink any American vessels that should attempt to pass it; and he would blow up the fort if he could not defend it.” 23

The blacks then hoisted the English Union Jack accompanied with the red flag over the fort. The blacks knew that surrender would only mean slavery so they would be no compromise. For the next several days the blacks opened fire whenever any troops appeared in their view.

On July 27, the gunboats approached the fort. The blacks opened fire when they entered into gunshot range. The gunboats fired back with some cold shots to get an idea of their real distance. The gunboats then fired “the first hot one,” made red-hot in the cook’s galley, which went screaming over the wall and into the fort’s magazine full of gunpowder. The fort completely exploded. Col. Clinch reported the horrific destruction:

“The explosion was awful, and the scene horrible beyond description. Our first care, on arriving at the scene of the destruction, was to rescue and relieve the unfortunate beings who survived the explosion. The war yells of the Indians, the cries and lamentations of the wounded, compelled the soldier to pause in the midst of victory, to drop a tear for the sufferings of his fellow beings, and to acknowledge that the great Ruler of the Universe must have used us as his instruments in chastising the blood-thirsty and murderous wretches that defended the fort.” 24

He gave a “divine justification” for the massacre in the official report. But he also wrote a far more descriptive alternative account of the event without involving God:

"The explosion was awful, and the scene horrible beyond description. You cannot conceive, nor I describe the horrors of the scene. In an instant lifeless bodies were stretched upon the plain, buried in sand and rubbish, or suspended from the tops of the surrounding pines. Here lay an innocent babe, there a helpless mother; on the one side a sturdy warrior, on the other a bleeding squaw. Piles of bodies, large heaps of sand, broken guns, accoutrements, etc, covered the site of the fort. The brave soldier was disarmed of his resentment and checked his victorious career, to drop a tear on the distressing scene." 25

The terrible explosion instantly killed 270 black men, women, and children within the fort, the rest being mortally wounded out of the total 330 residents. Only a few survived. The black commander Garson and the Choctaw chief somehow managed to survive the explosion. The Creeks sentenced them to death for the murder of the four U.S. soldiers. They learned that the blacks had tarred and feathered the captured soldier.

The Creeks immediately executed them afterwards. Some six of the blacks were captured and immediately returned to their speculated masters - that is if they were ever held in bondage at all. The large number of runaway slaves on the fields that surrounded the river scattered about to safety. Some fled to the protection of the blacks and Seminoles at the Suwannee and others left to the growing free black community just south of Tampa Bay.

The elimination of the fort was not the end of the black Seminole social structure in Florida. Several other black communities remained largely intact. But it was far from the end of the terror inflicted on the black Seminoles by the Federal government. It was far from the end of their resistance either. They would strive to avenge the loss of their family members and loved ones. 26

[davidshawnsown]

USA BASEBALL ONE-SHOT RPF 2: Mike's Boys (chapter 2)

(AN: Given the recommendations by a fellow Tumblr writer, I have created a second chapter of this one shot story. This is dedicated to recently retired Olympic silver medal pitcher Edwin Jackson of Team USA who retired from active play by the time of this writing and in celebration of the 23rd anniversary of the USA's Olympics gold in baseball in 2000. A third chapter may be on the way. Given the fact that Patrick Mahomes II's father played for the NPB team now known as the Yokohama DeNA Baystars and was himself a MLB veteran and also due to his former participation as part of the USA Baseball high school program trials, he and his Superbowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs will be included as well beginning this chapter - making it a NFL crossover.)

Warnings: War, language, blood, battle scenes

1030H EEST

With the briefing now over, the strategy for the 1st Battalion 78th Infantry Brigade Combat Team was finally set, with the full blessing of brigade leadership and battalion command. The operation entailed the battalion following the elements of the two battalions of the lightly armed 113rd Territorial Defense Brigade of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces in liberating the villages of Cherkas'ki Tyshky and Rus'ki Tyshky while the 2nd Battalion joins the rest of the forces from that brigade in the main road of the township. The goals are to help the brigade liberate the northern villages of Tsyrkuny from elements of the Russian 200th Motor Rifle Brigade of the Northern Fleet reinforced by a battalion of the Donetsk People's Militia's 1st Motor Rifle Regiment. They are supported by the M3 Bradleys of the armored cavalry squadron as well as the field artillery and air defense elements of the brigade. The battalion's strategy was to help defeat company or battalion sized elements of the 200th Motor Rifle Brigade and the 1st Motor Rifle Regiment as well as the 200th's T-80BVM MBTs of its tank battalion whose elements are in the village in a company formation, the rest of the companies are north of that area or on the main road alongside the rest of the SPG batteries as one battery is in the village equipped with the Msta tracked SPG. And also their additional role is to capture the village road junction located in the east of Cherkas'ki Tyshky which links it to Rus'ki Tyshky and the main road, which leads north to Borshchova and the border.

Basically the battalion's orders were to capture these two villages north of Kharkiv, pushing Russia's infantry and armor forces away from the city's suburbs, as well as artillery, as the 2nd Battalion moves on the main road alongside 3 battalions under 169th Corps' regiments (2 from 76th Infantry Division, one coming from the 901st Infantry) and word is now clear that a National Guard of Ukraine company is reinforcing the rear to help in the operation. In addition, their duty is to push away most of Russian artillery sytems futher from Kharkiv itself.

During the pre-combat brief, the company commanders were given their set orders for the day. A and B Companies would be the lead in the operation with D, E and F Companies, the latter assisted by CPT Jack Wilson, their founding commander, following them together with the battalion HQ company, with A Troop of the armored cavalry squadron and two tank companies of the armored battalion using a modernized M60 Patton and a mix of M8 AGS, M41 Walker Bulldogs and M555 Sheridans, as well as engineers helping in minesweeping and combat support ops and an air defense element mounted on Humvee platforms. The two field artillery battalions under the brigade would provide the much needed fire support using M777, M198, M108 and M109 systems and the portable Javellin system and other anti-tank systems in the anti-tank battalion, with batteries from the two assigned to the 1st Battalion set up on the rear and protected also by MANPADs and a company of TDF militias and joined by the two battalions' cannon batteries of M101 howitzers and NLAW and Javellin platoons of the heavy weapons companies. Three companies from the 1st battalions of the three regiments under 169th corps have been assigned to help 1st Battalion, the remainder to help the 2nd battalion clear the main road, as agreed upon that morning by their regimental commanders. Reinforcing them as artillery reserve are a battery of modernized M91 MLRS systems mounted on M35s - the HIMARS to be used when needed because the older M91s are similar to the BM-21 Grad systems the UGF has operated for decades.

Before their company commanders would talk about the operation, LTCOL Fenster, 1st Battalion commanding officer, spoke to his boys from the battalion and their attached elements in the presence of COL Bianco and some of the brigade staff: "Gentlemen, this morning is just the start of yet another operation for elements of the 1st Battalion, 78th BCT. But today is yet another glorious day in our unit's annals of history. This is the first task force styled-operation in our history as a brigade, with two of the battalions already fighting Russians and their allies from Donetsk with our Ukrainian brothers. We've done battlegroup styled ops before here, but now two of our infantry battalions are finally fighting together alongside the armor and artillery elements as well as support elements of the brigade present, for before this I've been given the orders from Brigadier General deRosa on his briefing call to the battalion command early today. Our task here, he said, is to remove Russians from the main highway of this township and its northern villages with the assistance of the Ukrainians of the 113rd Brigade and a company of National Guardsmen, helping to push back Russian guns from within range of the city itself and its suburbs and push these soldiers out for good away from it. In these past weeks, and even more today, all of us the men of 1st Battalion and the whole of the brigade are determined more than ever before to win this battle and the others to come for not just Ukraine but for our country and our NATO allies against the Russian aggressor threatening not just Ukrainians but ALL of us NATO countries at all fronts. In these past days, we've helped the 93rd Brigade do their jobs, now we've been helping these territorial militias as well as our fellow Americans in the International Legion. This is for their freedom and ours, boys. For the fallen in Bucha and all around this land, including those in the Kharkiv area, we will not stop our fighting with the Ukrainian people and her army, no matter what the costs. Understood gentlemen?"

"Sir yes sir" was the response of the boys.

COL Bianco then began to talk to the boys of the 6th platoon. Its commander 1LT Payton had stated that they are indeed ready once again, having perfected all they have trained for before in Irpin and Chernihiv with the rest of their company. This was the same sentiment shared by their XO and adjutant as well as its platoon sergeant. The colonel said that now would be a more better time for them to be better than ever, having shown their lot in earlier battles. "Now, gentlemen, its the time for us to show our strength once more in alliance with the Ukrainian people. I expect the best for you boys as you help the company achieve its objectives today, is that clear?"

"Sir yes sir" was the collective response. The colonel turned to the rest of the company stating his hope that the objectives of today's operations will surely be met with success.

"Captain Frazier," said the colonel, "I hope you and these personnel under your command achieve all the objectives for these operation, dead or alive. Not just America depends on this operation done. It is the Ukrainian people and our NATO partners and allies, and it will a big help for Ukraine if we flush out those Russians out of the range of Kharkiv."

"We will do our best, colonel," replied Captain Frazier.

"The same for us in B Company," then said Captain Arrietta. He said that they too will do their best to get things accomplished and the Ukrainians assisted in removing Russian soldiers from the village borders, limiting thus the Russian attacks on Kharkiv city itself. This is what captains Ober, Zimmerman and Cupp stated as well for D, E and F Companies of the 1st Battalion, detailing their readiness to follow the order of the day. Captain Wilson, now a part of A Company staff, remarked as well that what the lads of F Company did in these past weeks in Chernihiv in support of the Ukrainian forces relieving the Russian siege of the city stunned the battalion with their initiative and determination despite the young age of the boys and now they were ready to do it again.

Captain Judge then informed the colonel of his boys' preparedness for the combat ops they are about to do, saying, "Sir, given that all that the lads of the Bronx has gone thru, me and my boys are ready to fight for the nation and for the Ukraine. I have informed Colonel Boone that they are all prepared to fulfill the tasks for today."

Darren then informed him that he wishes the best as he prepares to help the 1st Battalion fulfill their objectives. He told him that they are assigned to help A Company led by his former superior, now Captain Frazier, to clear out Russians from Cherkas'ki Tyshky and support the Ukrainian offensive there.

1LT Aaron Nola of A Company 1st Battalion 83rd Philadelphia said the same. Given that they too were given the task to assist A Company, and that he has been given XO status in support of his commander 1LT Hoskins as his superior officer 1LT Harper has been called up to the colors because of his prior commitments before, he stated to COL Bianco that as part of the operation he felt proud to serve as part of the regiment raised and headquartered in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American independence, and that it was his duty to continue the city's heritage of leading in the defense of the nation in peace and in war. He also stated, "Being a New Orleans guy, I also bear in my heart the city's resistance in the War of 1812, and am ready to fight till the last with the boys from Philly."

The lieutenant from Sacramento then said, "No matter what happens today, colonel Bianco, we're ready to die carrying the arms of Philadelphia and the fighting legacy of her sons and daughters, sir. Most of all it is the American people, as well as the Ukrainian people already suffering after a few months of Russia's invasion, that we're ready to fight for at all costs. " Having served with the regiment since 2014 as an officer fresh from OCS, he became one of Bryce's deputies when he arrived in the city in 2019 on transfer from Washington. Since then he has served as one of his faithful comrades in arms. Alongside the company first sergeant 1SGT Muzziotti and his 1st platoon sergeant, SSGT Vierling, the two have carried on their duties to the company while Bryce is now at the 78th.

The same sentiments were shared by Captain Duvall of A Company from the 1st Battalion of the 72nd Atlanta. Raised in Louisville, KY, he has served as the company commander beginning late last year taking over from long time commander 1LT Freeman. He knew the importance of the cause they were fighting for and why the country has to help Ukraine now in its time of need. In his words, he felt that "missing families and friends at home, I knew I had a band of brothers ready to stand by me fighting for freedom no matter what the cost." His boys, assisted by 1LT Riley his executive officer and 1SGT Matzek the company first sergeant, are positioned to support CPT Arrietta and the B Company lads alongside SSGT Albies.

Then the colonel got a cellphone call from MG Scioscia.

"Make sure my boys from Tokyo are ready to lead the battalion for today," said the major general, confident that the men are ready to do it again in northern Kharkiv Oblast. They indeed needed that motivation badly from the overall commander of the Tokyo contingent in order to get the ball rolling for today's operations. He stated that Captain Frazier will be ready to lead the boys of 1st Battalion to the battle field once more, determined to continue on their winning ways in support of their Ukrainian brothers, who over these past few weeks have started to understand the Americans fighting with them for a singular cause.

"They will do their best, Mike. I'm confident these boys of yours together with mine, now fighting in the same unit, are committed to do their duties for the country and to obey the order given to them today to remove the remaining Russians from the Tsyrkuny area in support of the Ukrainians," replied Colonel Bianco. "I am truly amazed at what they did in past battles and am hopeful they will do it again."

"Good luck Colonel Bianco," replied the major general from Upper Darby. "Scioscia out."

After the call ended, LTC Fenster informed his operational commander that he's now ready to deploy the battalion for their operational goals for the day.

"Brigadier General DeRosa, sir, the 1st Battalion's ready to move out. We're ready to fulfill the orders for today's operation no matter what the cost, for the victory of the Ukrainian people, the very people we are fighting with today."

"Good luck gentlemen," replied the brigadier general. "Once more, America sends its prayers for your victories today and so does every Ukrainian. Do not fail this mission, boys, Ukraine needs this one and so does the USA. Move those boys now!"

"DeRosa, we will do our best, sir. We will not fail. We will not doubt all of America and Ukraine rooting for us once more," replied the commander. Then he presented his phone so that the boys will hear his order clearly to the battalion: to fulfill all objectives and help the 2nd Battalion, as well as the Ukrainians of the 113rd Brigade, clear Tsyrkuny township once and for all so that the Ukrainians will now be set to clear the areas north of Kharkiv from Russian forces with their support. Intel stated that the 1st Motor Rifles from the Donetsk People's Republic are moving out with a battalion of wheeled mechanized infantry to support the Russian 2nd Battalion of the 200th Motor Rifles, with elements of its 1st battalion and the 4th armored battalion in reserve as force multipliers. It is the duty of the Ukrainian 113rd TDB to push them out, and thus the 78th Brigade's 1st and 2nd battalions, as well as the 3 battalions from the 169th Corps regiments, have been tasked to assist them by all means. Thus the 1st Battalion must not fail in its objectives no matter what. The 3rd and 4th battalions, as well as the mortar and tank battalions of the brigade are also moving as brigade reserve to supplement and reinforce the formations as well as the Ukrainian forces fighting with them while the field artillery battalions will provide fires support and the air defense battalions will provide mobile and fixed air defense cover of the battlefield and protection of command elements.

After the call, the battalion commander replied, "We will do whatever it takes. Kharkiv's future rests on our efforts, general."

"Good luck LTC Fenster," answered the brigadier general. "And make sure these boys end the day safe and in a joint US-Ukrainian victory. DeRosa out."

"Good luck to you as well, brigadier general, sir," replied LTC Fenster. "We will continue to update via radio. Fenster out, Slava Ukraini."

"Heroyam Slava", replied the brigadier general.

"This is Major General Reagins speaking, colonel. Make sure these Russians are fucked when your boys fight them with the Ukrainians."

"We will do just that. I am confident than ever these boys will end the day with a win for Ukraine, sir", replied Darren.

The commander's Ukrainian interpreter informed him as well in English and then phoned the commander of the 113rd Territorial Defense Brigade that the 78th will soon be arriving to help reinforce their positions. He then phoned a member of the ILTD operating there to be on standby as the 78th too is helping in their combat ops.

With the order now granted to proceed, the 1st Battalion was now in battle mode once more.

"Is everything ready, sergeant major?"

"Yes sir, all systems go for this one," replied SGM Ronai.

"Has the Ukrainians of the 113rd Brigade and the International Legion been informed?"

The advisor said yes, adding that there's someone left a video message on his cellphone for the brigade. It's Malcolm Nance, the ex-US Navy SEAL turned soldier of the ILTD already fighting there with his fellow legionnaires, wishing the boys good luck. He had phoned brigade command this morning regarding their presence in the area.

"You heard the man, gentlemen," said LTC Fenster. "We have a battle to win in Tsyrkuny, to help the Ukrainians clear the Russians from this township and push them away futher from Kharkiv city, denying their artillery from firing directly at this city and thus save more lives. We must not fail this combat mission. It is imminent that we fulfill the tasks set by the brigade in conjuction with our Ukrainian brothers and the men of the International Legion fighting with them. The 2nd battalion is on the main road of the township and brigade command has told just minutes ago that the 4th and 5th battalions are being deployed as the reserve, while the tanks and artillery are ready as well to be deployed to support our main forces. Three more battalions, each from the 169th Corps, are also fighting with us. We expect heavy and tense resistance by the Russians where we are, but do not fear them, they know they will fear our guns, equipment, uniforms, everything that symbolizes our freedom, our country, and all that we stand for and that we're fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people in this the greatest hour that they are facing. Carried in our shoulders is a heavy burden of helping Ukraine defend itself from Russia and its allies. Now let's show the world our combine power once more to help defeat Russia in the lands of Ukraine and help it finally defeat this aggressor that has been terrorising this land for many years - and has been also been doing its best to obstruct and destroy ALL our freedoms around the world. For America and her people, and our newfound allies in Ukraine, we have a battle - and a war - to help win NOW no matter what. Understood, boys?"

"Sir yes sir" was the response.

"Slava Ukraini!"

"Heroyam Slava!", answered the gathered formation and the Ukrainian liasons with them.

"What's our battle cry 78th Brigade?"

"FOR GLORY!"

While this was happening someone had already arrived as well to the place: a member of the 59th Kansas City Infantry of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 610th Infantry Division, 20th Corps, nicknamed the "Chiefs" due to its Native American heritage and history, had arrived to join them: MAJ Patrick Mahomes II, whose father was a veteran of the 169th Corps and had previously been on secondment in Japan in a infantry battalion based in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, in the late 90s. He arrived with his battalion mounted on the Stryker system as wheleed mechanized infantry - one of 4 in the regiment. The 2nd has been placed in reserve to help assist in the operation when needed. The major had radioed the 1st Battalion commander informing him of his presence. Wearing the usual red and gold armband with the heraldic arms of their home city, he informed the leadership present of his battalion's arrival.

"Lieutenant colonel sir, forces of the 59th Kansas City's 1st Battalion are ready to assist in your efforts."

"Who are you and who asked you to reinforce the 78th Brigade?" asked the commander.

"Major Patrick Mahomes II, sir, commanding officer of 1st Battalion 59th Kansas City. Been an executive officer last year since I was promoted Major, and now I'm a battalion commander. Colonel Reid, my commanding officer who's in Ukraine with his regiment stationed in Poltava, ordered me and my battalion to join the 78th north of Kharkiv out of respect for my father's service with the 169th Corps wth the regiment in Minneapolis. We've just arrived today from Kharkiv coordinate efforts to remove Russians from north of the city. I'm ready to help these boys win."

"That's Colonel Andy Reid of the 59th and his boys in Poltava?" asked MAJ Sogard.

"Yes indeed, sir, that's the colonel," Mahomes answered.

"You guys are lucky around. Tell your regimental commander the 1st Battalion will help the 78th Brigade Combat Team's elements here in Tsyrkuny. These wheeled APCs will help this brigade and the Ukrainians of the 113rd Territorial Brigade defeat those BTRs of the Russians and drive them out of the twin villages of Cherkas'ki Tyshky and Rus'ki Tyshky. We're counting on you guys to help them win," told the major.

"We will do our best today, sir. Slava Ukraini!"

"Heroyam Slava!" was the response by everyone.

"Looks like this Mahomes guy will be joining us today," said LTC Fenster. "These Strykers, also used by one of the battalions of the 78th, will be the ones that will hopefully arm the Ukrainian Army in the coming months, they will be needing them and all the other equipment we use to help them drive out the Russians. Gentlemen, I hope he will be of big help to us here. Coordinate your efforts and make sure he will be fighting with his boys on the ground as well. Is that clear boys?"

"Sir yes sir!"

The "mount up and move out" order then given, the 1st Battalion boys and those of the companies under the 1st Battalions of the 3rd NY, 83rd Philadelphia and 72nd Atlanta all mounted their vehicles. The artillery batteries of the artillery battalions and anti-tank crews of the anti-tank battalion under the brigade, the gunners of the infantry gun companies and air defense crews soon geared up to provide supporting fire and air defense cover to their formations at the right time, expecting Russian Mil and Kamov helicopters to fly in support of their comrades on the ground as the Bradleys and M113s soon sprang to life, with engines roaring, alongside the M60s and Abrams from the tank battalion and the self-propelled guns from one of the field artillery battalions getting the systems started and moving south to avoid Russian counter battery fire. At the same time MAJ Mahomes, mounted on his M1130 Commander's Vehicle's turret had finished radioing his regimental commander informing him of his battalions' readiness to lead the operation in support of 78th Brigade elements, before calling his father, retired sergeant first class Mahomes who is at Poltava with regimental command. With him are his XO, CPT Smith-Schuster, the battalion sergeant major SGM Girardi and several men under the battalion staff and the headquarters and HQ company, with the new A Company commander 1LT Kelce and his XO 1LT Buechele on their own Stykers with the rest of the formation. All 5 rifle companies and their cannon company, all told, are to join the fight of the 78th that morning with their Ukrainian counterparts, while the HHC remains with elements of the 78th's command. Following that he got a call from BG DeRosa later on regarding what his battalion would do that morning.

The 1st Battalion 78th BCT, its personnel (sans those of C Company) now mounted on their M2 Bradleys, began to prepare for battle like never before.

"Is everyone ready First Sergeant Gose?" called Captain Frazier on his M2 Bradley, on the commander's turret radioing his company first sergeant.

"We're all ready, sir," replied 1SGT Gose on his M113A3 Rise APC. "Same with my crew, we're ready to roll out."

He radioed 1LT Austin as well on his readiness to lead the platoon. He responded, "Able 1, we're ready. Captain Frazier, we're in it to win, Able 1-11's ready, including many of the Tokyo lads. Let's get this rolling now, sir."

"Able 2-11 ready," said 1LT Jackson on his radio. "When we will all dismount sir, give us the signal. The vehicle commanders and the operational armored column commander, 1LT Thames, will be ready to take over command to provide the mounted elements of the operation for Able Company under your command as the leader of the dismounted force. We will never fail you, captain, no matter what the cost. And so too, we cannot fail the American people nor the Ukrainians in which we've been grateful to stand by them these past months."

"Will do my best to signal you guys to fight with me as one against those Russians, lieutenant," Todd answered on his radio.

2LT Eddy Alvarez then replied on his radio inside the Bradley, "So am I, sir."

"Able 1-21 ready, sir, elements of 2nd Platoon ready to move out," said 1LT Alec Bohm.

"Confirmed sir, you guys will follow our lead," replied the captain. He was sure 1LT Austin knew of the readiness of his platoon to help prepare for the battle this morning.

1LT Dylan Crews then informed his commanding officer via radio, "Able 1-31 ready for the operation, captain. Expect that 3rd Platoon will be ready as well."

His deputy, 2LT Teel, informed the captain via radio of his boys' readiness to help their unit achieve all their objectives for the day.

"Able 1-41, reporting. We're ready as well at 4th Platoon," 1LT Bailey informed his company commander as well. He told the captain they too are ready to risk their lives for not just Ukraine but of their homeland as well and thus his platoon is ready to fulfill their mission.

The platoon second in command, 2LT Meyer, added, "The same for me and the other officers and NCOs assigned to our Bradley crews. They are ready since the last time they fought these bastards, captain and you known that. We're ready to fight them again to the last."

The 5th platoon commander, 1LT Brandon Crawford voiced his readiness replying: "Able 1-51 ready Captain Frazier. The men of 5th Platoon have entered battle readiness and will follow your lead."

His XO said the same sentiments of combat readiness. So did the other platoon commanders of A Company, including 6th platoon's 1LT Payton.

At the same time the platoon commanders of the other companies had reported to their company commanders of their preparedness to fight.

CPT Tulowitzki reported to his CO on his Bradley, "Captain Frazier sir, all of A Company has stated their readiness for the operation. We're all ready for the battle to start."

"Affirmative, Tulo. Let's get those boys moving, we have an operation ongoing."

"Roger that Cap."

"Captain Jake!" radioed 1LT Fowler on his Bradley. "Bravo Company is all ready for the operation."

"Affirmative Lieutenant Fowler. I hope the men are all ready for this moment. Major Gall is thinking of us as he studies his command course far away from the front right now."

The rest of the company commanders did the same.

Following the order to proceed by LTC Fenster, the infantry, mounted as usual in their M2 Bradleys, moved out of the assembly area and into the battlefield, with gunfire and artillery blasts increasing as the battalion's fighting elements moved north along Sadova Street. Their objectives are to liberate Cherkas'ki Tyshky and help the Ukrainian territorials. And joining them in their Strykers are elements of the 59th Kansas City's 1st Battalion, who are taking part as force multipliers for the operation, alongside armored elements of the brigade.

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