#Protest In Whittier

[haggishlyhagging]

At the time the Grimké sisters set off on their speaking four of New England in 1837, many sectors of the New England churches had already been long-standing supporters of colonization societies, and at first the sisters received a warm welcome. Indeed, what better appeal could there be than the living witness of two women from a prominent Southern family who had personally observed the horrors of slavery and who now denounced the institution as sinful? They were tangible demonstrations that the tactical campaign launched by the abolition societies was a good one. If Southern women could have a change of heart and mind on the issue, then surely Northerners could be easily won to the same persuasion. But the Grimké sisters went beyond denouncing slavery as sinful; they spoke against race prejudice as an indirect support of slavery, insisting that such prejudice had to be fought in the North as well as the South. Angelina argued that the female slaves

“are our countrywomen; they are our sisters; and to us as women, they have a right to look for sympathy with their sorrows and effort and prayer for their rescue.”

To denounce slavery as sinful was one thing; to call on Northern Protestants to rid themselves of race prejudice was a rather strong idea to many New Englanders. Before the year was out, the Congregationalist ministers were refusing to read notices of abolitionist meetings from the pulpit.

During their Boston stay the sisters were clearly influenced and encouraged by Garrison to strengthen the positions they had espoused at the beginning of their tour. They quietly emphasized the point in their lectures that if women were to become effective in the abolition movement, they had to free themselves from the social restraints that had kept them numb and silent and learn to speak and act as fully responsible moral beings. Many people, clergymen in particular, were very skeptical of, if not openly hostile to, this view of women in the abolition movement. Garrison seems to have taken the discord as an opportunity to denounce the clergy and to identify himself as a strong supporter of woman's rights. It is difficult to be sure of the distribution of views within the abolition movement concerning the stress on woman's rights by antislavery agents, for G. H. Barnes (1957), one of the chief historians of this movement, is so clearly critical of Garrison that one must look cautiously beyond his textual account to the evidence itself, and that is ambiguous. The correspondence between Weld and Angelina Grimké makes it is clear that Weld was eager to open the leadership of the movement to women, since they could reach other women more effectively than men could. Angelina seemed to become increasingly convinced that there was a need to mobilize the reservoir of antislavery sentiment and potential for action among women in more general terms. Since the sisters were speaking many times a week as they toured New England, they were in the throes of an intensive process of politicization themselves, and much of the assurance with which they now wrote and defended their ideas was probably rooted in this experience. But Weld advised caution without departing from his principled support for women. Other officers of the society used a much sharper tone in their letters to the women. Whittier asked how they could forget "the great and dreadful wrongs of the slave in a selfish crusade against some paltry grievance . . . some trifling oppression, political or social, of their own" (Barnes 1957: 157).

Despite the warnings from abolition society officials, Sarah continued her work on a series of letters on the equality of the sexes and on her response to the angry pastoral letter that denounced "the mistaken conduct of those who encourage females to bear an obtrusive and ostentatious part in measures of reform" (Barnes 1957:156).

-Alice S. Rossi, The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.1 (after 1950)

1953 – Andhra State is formed, consisting of a Telugu-speaking area carved out of India's Madras State. 1953 – A United States-South Korea mutual defense treaty is concluded in Washington, D.C. 1955 – The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is established. 1957 – The motto In God We Trust first appears on U.S. paper currency. 1958 – The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is replaced by NASA. 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1961 – The United States Defense Intelligence Agency is formed, becoming the country's first centralized military intelligence organization. 1961 – East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. 1962 – James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying racial segregation rules. 1963 – On its third anniversary as an independent nation, Nigeria became a republic. 1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. 1964 – Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka. 1966 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with no survivors in Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9. 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time. 1971 – Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida. 1971 – The first practical CT scanner is used to diagnose a patient. 1975 – Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines. 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1979 – The MTR, Hong Kong's rapid transit railway system, opens. 1982 – Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a constructive vote of no confidence. 1982 – EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida. 1982 – Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan; on the same day, Sony releases the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind. 1985 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israel attacks the Palestine Liberation Organization's Tunisia headquarters during Operation Wooden Leg. 1987 – The 5.9 Mw  Whittier Narrows earthquake shakes the San Gabriel Valley with a Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 200. 1989 – Denmark introduces the world's first legal same-sex registered partnerships. 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Siege of Dubrovnik begins. 2000 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Palestinians protest the murder of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah by Israeli police in northern Israel, beginning the "October 2000 events". 2001 – Militants attack the state legislature building in Kashmir, killing 38. 2003 – The popular and controversial English-language imageboard 4chan is launched. 2009 – The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords. 2012 – A ferry collision off the coast of Hong Kong kills 38 people and injures 102 others. 2014 – A series of explosions at a gunpowder plant in Bulgaria completely destroys the factory, killing 15 people. 2014 – A double bombing of an elementary school in Homs, Syria kills over 50 people. 2015 – A gunman kills nine people at a community college in Oregon. 2015 – The American cargo vessel SS El Faro sinks with all of its 33 crew after steaming into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin. 2016 – The leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Pedro Sánchez, resigns. He would return to the position a year later. 2017 – Fifty-eight people are killed and 869 others injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival at the Las Vegas Strip in the United States; the gunman, Stephen Paddock, later commits suicide. 2018 – The International Court of Justice rules that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with Bolivia. 2019 – Kuopio school stabbing: one dies and ten are injured when Joel Marin, armed with a sabre, attacks a school class at Savo Vocational College in Kuopio, Finland. 2021 – The 2020 World Expo in Dubai begins. Its opening was originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[epeedebleuet]

Translation or thereabouts

​

The Truth About the Kingdom of This Earth

To answer this question it took me 10 years of research that I give away for free

The real name of Louis 16 is Majesty Louis Joseph Gill Dorono Toltecs descendant of the Huguenots therefore Protestants ,and close to Jesus, in Quebec it is Louis Gil he was lieutenant governor of Quebec and his brother Charles Gill was just ge of the supreme court of Quebec Everything is in notarial registers so below

https://archivesseminairenicolet.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/fonds-henri-vassal1.pdf

Before his he had Sr. Samuel Gill Whittier he left Quebec to go to war in Spain. He also has Napoleon Bonaparte Gill ,even I have lost his name corn the one who has his name on the banknotes in the united states bhin add Gill to his first name and you will find it. The oldest known Gill is gillgameche 6000 years before Jesus ,my family was abenaki, its i am half sure but i make a link with anunaki, IA GPT made the link with acadian and akkadian it is 2 people who come Iraq distin .i change the subject a little but the project man to have flown flew flew on an eagle back so i asked ia gpt to make a link with the angels, the gold grifond, and the one who flew with an eagle's back... I now think I haven't found it, but I'm still looking for proof. The veking who came to plunder the villages in Europe the kepbek =veking= French from the came the biblical word sin or fishermen. I think the French had the cesssession boat that was in Quebec, it has a legend that has never been found

Pour répondre à cette sa ma pris 10 ans de recherches que je donne gratuitement

Le vraie nom de louis 16 est majesté Louis Joseph gill dorono toltèques descendant des huguenots donc protestants ,et proche de Jésus , au Québec c'est Louis Gil il était lieutenant gouverneur du Québec et sont frère Charles Gill était juste ge de la cours suprême du Québec

Tout est dans des registres notarié si dessous

https://archivesseminairenicolet.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/fonds-henri-vassal1.pdf

Avant sa il a sr Samuel gill Whittier lui il est parti du Québec pour aller faire la guerre en Espagne . Il a aussi Napoléon Bonaparte Gill ,même j'ai perdu sont nom maïs celui qui a sont nom sur les billets de banque au état unis bhin rajouter Gill a sont pre nom et vous allez le trouver . Le plus vieux Gill connue c'est gillgameche 6000 an avant Jésus ,ma famille était abenaki, sa je suis moit sur mais je fais un liens avec anunaki, IA GPT a fait le lien avec acadien et akkadien c'est 2 peuple qui vient Irak distin .je change de sujet un peu mais le projet homme a avoir volé a volé a volé sur un dos aigle donc j'ai demandé à ia gpt de faire un lien avec les anges,le grifond or ,et celui qui a volé a dos aigle...se que je pense maintenant que j'ai pas trouvé, mais que je cherche encore de preuve . Les veking qui venait pillé les villages en Europe le kepbek =veking= français de la venait le mot biblique péché ou pêcheurs. Je pense que les Français avait le bateau de cesssession qui était au Québec, il a une légende qui n'a jamais été trouvé

[aspiringbelle]

“So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn

Which once he wore!

The glory from his gray hairs gone

Forevermore!

Revile him not, the Tempter hath

A snare for all;

And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath,

Befit his fall!

Oh, dumb be passion’s stormy rage,

When he who might

Have lighted up and led his age,

Falls back in night.

Scorn! would the angels laugh, to mark

A bright soul driven,

Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark,

From hope and heaven!

Let not the land once proud of him

Insult him now,

Nor brand with deeper shame his dim,

Dishonored brow.

But let its humbled sons, instead,

From sea to lake,

A long lament, as for the dead,

In sadness make.

Of all we loved and honored, naught

Save power remains;

A fallen angel’s pride of thought,

Still strong in chains.

All else is gone; from those great eyes

The soul has fled:

When faith is lost, when honor dies,

The man is dead!

Then, pay the reverence of old days

To his dead fame;

Walk backward, with averted gaze,

And hide the shame!”

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) “Ichabod” (1850, written in protest to Daniel Webster’s promoting the Fugitive Slave Law).

Ramon Antonio Vargas at The Guardian:

Progressive US voters must unite behind Joe Biden rather than consider any of his Democratic primary challengers because the threat of another Donald Trump presidency is too great, Bernie Sanders has said. “We’re taking on the … former president, who, in fact, does not believe in democracy – he is an authoritarian, and a very, very dangerous person,” the senator and Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think at this moment there has to be unification of progressive people in general in all of this country.” Sanders’ remarks came as Trump continued grappling with more than 90 criminal charges across four separate indictments filed against him for his efforts to forcibly nullify his defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential race, his illicit retention of classified documents, and hush-money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels. [...] The senator responded to that criticism on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, saying, “Where I disagree with my good friend Cornel West is – I think, in these really very difficult times, there is a real question whether democracy is going to remain in the United States of America. “You know, Donald Trump is not somebody who believes in democracy, whether women are going to be able to continue to control their own bodies, whether we have social justice in America, [whether] we end bigotry.” Sanders didn’t elaborate, but his remarks seemed to be an allusion to the Trump White House’s creation of the US supreme court supermajority, which last year struck down the federal abortion rights that the Roe v Wade decision had established decades earlier.

During his appearances on both CNN's State Of The Union and NBC's Meet The Press Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) has urged progressive Americans to unite behind Joe Biden to stop the fascist takeover of America that Donald Trump and co. represent on the GOP side.

From the 08.27.2023 edition of NBC's Meet The Press:

[jacobknight-jk]

So my city chose to build Townhouses instead of a homeless shelter and I’m irked. Ok so before I get kind of petty I want to give some background information to this whole situation. 

We’re gonna do this in three parts 

Part 1 

What the heck do we do with this gosh darn land

Construction continues at the former site of the 128-year-old Fred C. Nelles Correctional Facility, in Whittier, CA, on Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019. The site was closed in 2004 and is now under construction for new homes and a commercial center. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

So the Nells site was this youth correctional facility for more than 100 year, finally closing down in 2004, was sold for 42 million to Brookfiled residential to build a bunch of homes, apartments and shops ect. 

Sounds ok right ? I mean The city I’m in, Whittier, is crowded as hell but it’s not that bad right ?

As more and more news and images came out about the site, it became clearer and clearer who the site was for. 

While I’m sure you can state all the reasons this site was repurposed this way, it was mostly for money. I mean in a Whittier Daily News Article from  2018, 

David Bartlett, vice president of land entitlements for Costa Mesa-based Brookfield Residential,said that, 

“for the first time in its 128-year history, the property will be on the tax roll,”.

Before the sale, the state tried to re purpose the area for places such as a training or re-entry facility and prison hospital, and when that failed, there was even a conservation group that opposed rebuilding in order to preserve the buildings there. That group no longer exists. And Having money isn’t inherently bad at all, the issue is just that land could’ve been repurposed into. But I mean, new people coming in right. Hey maybe it’ll be low income housing and the commercial areas will provide some jobs and hey, maybe there will be a community center. Maybe even a public park for everyone to enjoy 

Part 2

So who the gosh dang are gonna live there. 

Ok so I look at these photos and think wow, this is nice. Really nice. I’d love to go there and check it out. 

So I go to the website and I see something that probably should’ve been obvious but i was too dumb to see it.

The recreational parts of the groves are entirely private. 

As stated by the groves website,

“The Groves’ private recreation center, re imagined in the site’s historic chapel, is sure to be your favorite spot to swim, unwind, get fit, celebrate a special event or catch up with friends.”

And I very stupidly realize that this place isn’t for ….

Most of my family 

So according to the website, the price range for some of these town-homes range from 4 hundred thousand to 8 hundred thousand with 189 apartments available and 5 hundred 61 homes for sale. ( following images are taken from the Groves website. )

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now before I comment on the type of people that’ll live here I want to say two things. 

I recognize my privilege and where I live and that I am blessed to live on a property in uptown and to have a family to support me

I feel like I don’t need the relation between the connection between ethnic groups and their relations to socioeconomic status. I don’t need to explain how, historically, those with lighter skin tones do better in this country than those with darker. We know this. Yes it is a complex issue and there is nuance. But I don’t need to explain that because I trust that whomever watching this video is smart. 

So yeah, a bunch of rich white people are probably gonna move it and the only surprising thing about that is that they’ll be below wittier blvd.

Well ….

Part 3

So why the heck am I mad

I am mad that the council chose to have these developers come in and build townhouses instead of something that would do more to benefit the community.

How about a homeless shelter huh ? A woman died New year’s day last year and they had this whole meeting about it, and they are barely putting together a temporary shelter for the homeless this august. 

The Homeless were literally living on the green leaf belt where they had no where else to go, and instead of providing appropriate space for them, they were given hotel vouchers and then forced away.

OK fine. You don’t want a homeless shelter. How about you find contractors to build low income housing, or maybe put a park there. You could still transform part of the area for commercial use. 

But no . Its private community with town-homes and a pool and trails and a bunch of nice amenities. I’m sure there’s nuance to the pro of building it all that I’m not addressing, but this was more of a structured stream of consciousness rather than a dissection of the idea and a complete dismissal of it 

I hope whoever lives there, lives well. And has a good time.

That’s it that’s the Article 

So for all the sites I referenced you can find links down below, so you can do your own research. 

Did you agree with me ? Do you hate Me? Let me know in the comments down below. 

Hope you’re doing well, bye.

Links :

Homeless Green Belt situation

https://elpaisanoonline.com/news/2019/05/17/no-home-no-help-no-hope/

https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2019/03/20/skid-row-looking-homeless-encampment-pops-up-in-whittier-greenbelt/

On the protest going on right now at Whittier City Hall

https://elpaisanoonline.com/news/2020/07/17/the-24-hour-protest-in-front-of-whittier-city-hall/ 

National Center for Biotechnology Information

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25526/

A little article on Bloomberg 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-28/tsmc-among-world-s-top-10-biggest-stocks-after-72-billion-surge

Whittier Articles : 

https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2018/04/04/whittier-its-really-happening-development-of-the-nelles-site-begins-with-a-groundbreaking/

https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2019/12/24/the-groves-whittiers-big-development-on-former-nelles-juvenile-corrections-site-is-closer-to-becoming-a-reality/

The Groves Website : 

https://thegroveswhittier.com/

My City Chose Townhouses Over Shelters So my city chose to build Townhouses instead of a homeless shelter and I’m irked. Ok so before I get kind of petty I want to give some background information to this whole situation. 

[quakerjoe]

Derrick Evans, 35, a newly elected Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates.

Couy Griffin — a Republican county commissioner in Otero County, New Mexico, who founded a group called Cowboys for Trump — filmed himself on the steps of the Capitol building during the insurrection.

Pennsylvania Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s campaign spent thousands of dollars to charter buses for people to travel to D.C. for the Capitol rally, WHYY reported.

West Virginia Republican state Sen. Mike Azinger told a talk radio show that he attended the Capitol rally but did not breach the building. He also pushed the false claim that “antifa” was responsible for the violence there.

Nearly 7,000 people have signed a petition calling for the resignation of Jessica Martinez, a city council member in Whittier, California, who posted a video from the Jan. 6 rally to Twitter.

Sandy Adams, district director for Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), attended the Capitol rally with her husband, Melvin, chair of Virginia’s 5th District GOP Committee. Melvin, in a long statement emailed to people in his district, explained that he and Sandy went to the rally “to join with many, many thousands of wonderful red-blooded American patriots in Washington DC.”

After attending the Jan. 6 rally, Republican Virginia Del. Dave LaRock said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the violence at the Capitol but added, falsely, that it was “highly likely” that those who forcefully entered the building were “paid provocateurs sent in to taint an otherwise orderly protest.” LaRock has led the GOP charge in Virginia to discredit the results of the 2020 election, resulting in recent calls for his resignation.

Incoming Colorado state Rep. Ron Hanks said he marched to the Capitol after watching Trump speak near the White House on Jan. 6

The Virginia state Senate voted 37 to 1 on Tuesday to strip Republican state Sen. Amanda  Chase — a self-christened “Trump in heels” — of her only committee assignment as punishment for her participation in the Jan. 6 rally. Senate Democrats also advanced a resolution to censure Chase, calling on her to resign before the censure — a rare and formal condemnation of a sitting lawmaker — comes to a vote on the Senate floor. Virginia Senate’s Democratic Caucus, in a statement supporting the censure, wrote that Chase “unequivocally committed insurrection.”

Over 40 Democratic Arizona state senators and representatives sent a letter to the FBI and the Dept. of Justice last week calling on the two agencies to investigate Republican Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem for his role in the Capitol riots. Finchem, the letter claimed, “actively encouraged the mob, both before and during the attack on the Capitol.”

(Yes, there’s more...)

[theculturedmarxist]

In the third decade of the 21st century, the Social Register still exists, there are still debutante balls, polo and lacrosse are still patrician sports, and old money families still summer at Newport. But these are fossil relics of an older class system. The rising ruling class in America is found in every major city in every region. Membership in it depends on having the right diplomas—and the right beliefs. 

To observers of the American class system in the 21st century, the common conflation of social class with income is a source of amusement as well as frustration. Depending on how you slice and dice the population, you can come up with as many income classes as you like—four classes with 25%, or the 99% against the 1%, or the 99.99% against the 0.01%. In the United States, as in most advanced societies, class tends to be a compound of income, wealth, education, ethnicity, religion, and race, in various proportions. There has never been a society in which the ruling class consisted merely of a basket of random rich people.

Progressives who equate class with money naturally fall into the mistake of thinking you can reduce class differences by sending lower-income people cash—in the form of a universal basic income, for example. Meanwhile, populists on the right tend to imagine that the United States was much more egalitarian, within the white majority itself, than it really was, whether in the 1950s or the 1850s.

Both sides miss the real story of the evolution of the American class system in the last half century toward the consolidation of a national ruling class—a development which is unprecedented in U.S. history. That’s because, from the American Revolution until the late 20th century, the American elite was divided among regional oligarchies. It is only in the last generation that these regional patriciates have been absorbed into a single, increasingly homogeneous national oligarchy, with the same accent, manners, values, and educational backgrounds from Boston to Austin and San Francisco to New York and Atlanta. This is a truly epochal development.

In living memory, every major city in the United States had its own old money families with their own clubs and their own rituals and their own social and economic networks. Often the money was not very old, going back to a real estate killing or a mining fortune or an oil strike a generation or two before. Even so, the heirs and heiresses set themselves up as a local aristocracy. Like other aristocracies, these urban patricians renewed their bloodlines and bank accounts by admitting new money, once the parvenus had served probation and assimilated the values of the local patriciate.

These regional urban patriciates were similar demographically, at a time when the racial caste system that divided whites from nonwhites was accompanied by an ethnic caste system among whites. Within the white population, Anglo American Protestants, preferably Episcopalian or Presbyterian, were at the top, followed by Anglo Americans belonging to more vulgar denominations like the Methodists and Baptists. German and Scandinavian Americans could be honorary Anglo Americans. But Irish American Catholics, Jews, and Italian and Polish Americans occupied a lower rung. Mexican Americans occupied an ambiguous position. In some areas they were discriminated against as Blacks were, in others they were treated as the equivalent of low-status whites. Black Americans and Asian Americans were excluded.

The Anglo American Protestant patricians in every region and state shared a common Anglo American and Trans-Atlantic culture—but not a common national culture. Instead, they had regional cultures separately based on a common British and European heritage. This is so peculiar that it needs to be explained.

Let us begin with what they shared: Trans-Atlantic culture. From the earliest days of the republic, the wealthy elites of even the most remote and Godforsaken parts of the South and West could afford to vacation in Europe. They would bring back the latest French and British fashions to rural Mississippi or Wyoming. Before the self-consciously regional Prairie Style of Frank Lloyd Wright, there was never any indigenous American architecture, just wave after wave of faddish European styles: Palladianism, Greek Revival, Gothic, Romanesque. The relics of these transient Europhile fads litter the United States in the form of courthouses and other old public buildings from coast to coast.

In contrast, local patriciates tried to boost their own authors at the expense of those in other American regions. My maternal grandmother, a schoolteacher for part of her career, belonged to the minor Southern gentry. She saw to it that my brother and I were introduced to the literary canon as educated white Southerners of the early 20th century conceived of it: A British substrate, consisting of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, overlain by Southern writers like Sidney Lanier, whose “The Marshes of Glynn” introduced me to the wonders of verse. The equivalent New England literary canon ran directly from Shakespeare and Milton and Pope and Scott and Tennyson to Emerson, Longfellow and Whittier and the other “Fireside Poets” (Whitman, Hawthorne, and Melville only acquired their present status later, thanks to mid-20th-century academics).

In short, for two centuries there was a double competition among regional American oligarchies. On the one hand, the local notables, particularly those from the newly settled regions, had to prove they were not backward bumpkins, but were just as up-to-date with regard to European fashions as the patricians in New York and Boston and Philadelphia. On the other hand, some of them dreamed that the city they ran, whether it was Atlanta or Milwaukee, would become the Athens or Renaissance Florence of North America, and favored local writers, poets, and artists, as long as their work was in fashionable styles and did not inspire seditious thoughts among the local masses. The subnational blocs of New Englanders, Southerners, and Midwesterners fought to control the federal government in order to promote their regional economic interests.

The status of Harvard and Yale as prestigious national rather than regional universities is relatively recent. A few generations ago, it was assumed that the sons of the local gentry (this was before coeducation began in the 1960s and 1970s) would remain in the area and rise to high office in local and state business, politics, and philanthropy—goals that were best served if they attended a local elite college and joined the right fraternity, rather than being educated in some other part of the country. College was about upper-class socialization, not learning, which is why parochial patricians favored regional colleges and universities. If your family was in the local social register, that was much more important than whether you went to an Ivy League college or a local college or no college at all.

American patricians of earlier generations would have been surprised that rich people, many of them celebrities, would scheme and bribe university officers to get their children into a few top universities. Scheming to get into the right local “society” club—now that would have made sense.

Upper-class women were the chief enforcers of local “society.” Anybody who thinks that women are somehow naturally more generous and egalitarian than men has never encountered a doyenne of high society. Mrs. Astor’s 400 families in New York had their counterparts throughout the United States, from the Mainline elite in Philadelphia to the Highland Park set in Dallas.

As in the novels of Jane Austen, the daughters of the local ruling class had to be married to a young man from a good family, if the dynasty was not to fall into disgrace. Until recently (and to this day, in some circles) a young woman’s debut in society was, if anything, more important than marriage itself, since the debutante ball helped to define her eligibility for a high-status marriage.

When I explain all of this to friends from other countries, they tend to be surprised, if not suspicious of my account. What about frontier egalitarianism? Wasn’t America dominated by the just-folks middle class in the 19th and 20th centuries? Isn’t America in danger now, for the first time in its history, of becoming an Old World style hierarchy?

The egalitarianism of the American frontier is greatly exaggerated. Some of the myth comes from European tourists like Alexis de Tocqueville, Harriet Martineau, and Dickens. For ideological reasons or just for entertainment, they played up how classless and vulgar Americans were for audiences back in Europe. On their trips they mostly encountered the wealthy and educated, who might have been informal by the standards of British dukes or French royalty, but who were hardly yeoman farmers. If these famous tourists had spent their time in slave cabins, immigrant tenements, miners camps, and cowboy bunkhouses, they might have gotten a different sense of how egalitarian America actually was. Elite Americans might have been more likely than elite Brits to smile politely when dealing with working-class people, but they were no more likely to welcome them into the family.

The Western frontier was not entirely a myth, to be sure. My great-great-grandfather proposed marriage to my great-great-grandmother by handing her a letter from horseback before riding north on a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, and a distant uncle was murdered by outlaws on the road outside of Austin in the 1880s. But the Wild West or boomtown era everywhere was brief. The first white settlers in a region may have been trappers or small farmers or ranchers or outlaws or pirates, but once Native Americans had been removed to reservations and the railroad was in place, the area was rapidly gentrified. The rich moved in, bought up the good land, built mansions and the local opera house in the current European style and drove the frontiersmen and their families out.

White poverty in the United States today is concentrated in greater Appalachia, because the Scots Irish settlers, often illiterate squatters, were priced out of other areas and ended up in the hills of Appalachia, the Ozarks, and the Texas Hill Country. As soon as the affluent discover the scenic views in those areas, they will be forced to move once more, just as old-stock families are already being priced out of the Texas Hill Country by rich refugees from California, bringing with them their cultural heritage of trophy wineries and boutiques, New Age spirituality and organic cuisines.

Because there was no single national American elite, there was never a single Western frontier. New Englanders moved west in a band to the south of the Great Lakes, and then moved eastward and inland from ports on the Pacific Coast. While the Scots Irish followed the hills, the Southern planter class acquired cotton-friendly soil from Virginia along the Gulf of Mexico to central Texas, where the coastal plain collides with the southernmost part of the Great Plains. As the historians David Hackett Fischer and Wilbur Zelinsky have pointed out, these parallel bands of east-to-west settlement brought separate Anglo American cultures, reflected in everything from codes of honor to town layouts (town planners in greater New England laid out village greens with churches and schools, while Southern towns tended to be centered on the courthouse).

In short, a historical narrative which describes a fall from the yeoman democracy of an imagined American past to the plutocracy and technocracy of today is fundamentally wrong. While American society was not formally aristocratic it was hierarchical and class-ridden from the beginning—not to mention racist and ethnically biased. What’s new today is that these highly exclusive local urban patriciates are in the process of being absorbed into the first truly national ruling class in American history—which is a good thing in some ways, and a bad thing in others.

Compared with previous American elites, the emerging American oligarchy is open and meritocratic and free of most glaring forms of racial and ethnic bias. As recently as the 1970s, an acquaintance of mine who worked for a major Northeastern bank had to disguise the fact of his Irish ancestry from the bank’s WASP partners. No longer. Elite banks and businesses are desperate to prove their commitment to diversity. At the moment Wall Street and Silicon Valley are disproportionately white and Asian American, but this reflects the relatively low socioeconomic status of many Black and Hispanic Americans, a status shared by the Scots Irish white poor in greater Appalachia (who are left out of “diversity and inclusion” efforts because of their “white privilege”). Immigrants from Africa and South America (as opposed to Mexico and Central America) tend to be from professional class backgrounds and to be better educated and more affluent than white Americans on average—which explains why Harvard uses rich African immigrants to meet its informal Black quota, although the purpose of affirmative action was supposed to be to help the American descendants of slaves (ADOS). According to Pew, the richest groups in the United States by religion are Episcopalian, Jewish, and Hindu (wealthy “seculars” may be disproportionately East Asian American, though the data on this point is not clear).

Membership in the multiracial, post-ethnic national overclass depends chiefly on graduation with a diploma—preferably a graduate or professional degree—from an Ivy League school or a selective state university, which makes the Ivy League the new social register. But a diploma from the Ivy League or a top-ranked state university by itself is not sufficient for admission to the new national overclass. Like all ruling classes, the new American overclass uses cues like dialect, religion, and values to distinguish insiders from outsiders.

Dialect. You may have been at the top of your class in Harvard business school, but if you pronounce thirty-third “toidy-toid” or have a Southern drawl, you might consider speech therapy.

Religion. You may have edited the Yale Law Review, but if you tell interviewers that you recently accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, or fondle a rosary during the interview, don’t expect a job at a prestige firm.

Values. This is the trickiest test, because the ruling class is constantly changing its shibboleths—in order to distinguish true members of the inner circle from vulgar impostors who are trying to break into the elite. A decade ago, as a member of the American overclass you could get away with saying, along with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, “I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, but I strongly support civil unions for gay men and lesbians.” In 2020 you are expected to say, “I strongly support trans rights.” You will flunk the interview if you start going on about civil unions.

More and more Americans are figuring out that “wokeness” functions in the new, centralized American elite as a device to exclude working-class Americans of all races, along with backward remnants of the old regional elites. In effect, the new national oligarchy changes the codes and the passwords every six months or so, and notifies its members through the universities and the prestige media and Twitter. America’s working-class majority of all races pays far less attention than the elite to the media, and is highly unlikely to have a kid at Harvard or Yale to clue them in. And non-college-educated Americans spend very little time on Facebook and Twitter, the latter of which they are unlikely to be able to identify—which, among other things, proves the idiocy of the “Russiagate” theory that Vladimir Putin brainwashed white working-class Americans into voting for Trump by memes in social media which they are the least likely American voters to see.

Constantly replacing old terms with new terms known only to the oligarchs is a brilliant strategy of social exclusion. The rationale is supposed to be that this shows greater respect for particular groups. But there was no grassroots working-class movement among Black Americans demanding the use of “enslaved persons” instead of “slaves” and the overwhelming majority of Americans of Latin American descent—a wildly homogenizing category created by the U.S. Census Bureau—reject the weird term “Latinx.” Woke speech is simply a ruling-class dialect, which must be updated frequently to keep the lower orders from breaking the code and successfully imitating their betters.

Mrs. Astor would approve.

[crescentcampbell]

A Study in Bridegrooms and Blood, Chapter 7: Of Ghosts and Thieves

Seven       Sunday was supposed to mark the day of the “wedding”. Until then, they were there, investigating the previous guests and their experiences trying to find answers for the five, dead brides. Enola had spent the first day investigating rooms and reading interviews with Tewkesbury locked alone in the library. The day had been suspiciously quiet, and Enola had wondered that her brothers hadn’t come to get her for any assistance.

     On the first night there, Enola sat at the writing desk, making lists to herself.

Fannie Whittier Dead of Scarlet Fever Appears at the edge of the bed Wedding march plays All the brides saw the same thing Only five of them dead What do the five dead brides have in common?      Enola stared at her list and realized that they would have to interview the staff next. As she was scribbling her notes, she heard the sound of scraping. Enola straightened, and looked around, trying to decipher where the noise was coming from. She stood up, and Enola took the candle from her desk with her.            It seemed like there was something coming from within the walls. Enola pressed her ear against it, the scraping getting louder. She followed the noise from her room, down the hall way, and was only deterred by a voice calling her name.

“Enola!” she glanced up to find Tewkesbury standing there in his robe and dress shirt. Enola blushed at the sight of him. “Tewkesbury,” she said.

“What are you doing?” he said. “Is it the bride? Did you see her?”

Enola shook her head. “No, but there’s something in the walls.” x

“Mice, surely,” he said, “the family did say they’ve had all sorts of problems with the building…”

Enola shook her head. “It’s like someone dragging something across cement…..”

At that particular moment, there was the sound of a door rattling nearby, causing Enola to jump. “Stars and garters!” she exclaimed. “Did you hear---”

Tewkesbury nodded.

They glanced down the hallway and watched as the bedroom door that had formally belonged to Fannie swung open. They heard the down of another slamming shut, causing Enola to jump and reach out for Tewkesbury’s hand, grabbing it tightly.

“Come on,” she said, dragging him forward despite the young, Lord’s protests.

“Shouldn’t we get Sherlock? Or Mycroft? Or even Doctor Watson?”

Enola glanced over her shoulder at him, a wry smile on her face. “Would you really entrust your life to any of them?” she replied.

Tewkesbury sighed. “Point taken.”

“Besides, I’m investigating this case as much as they are. I’ve a right to follow those mysterious noises.”

Inside Fannie’s room, Enola shivered. There was a slight chill in the air.

“Do you think it’s the ghost?” Tewkesbury asked.

“Be sensible,” she replied.

“But the scratching----and the door,” said Tewkesbury.

“There’s someone playing games with us,” Enola said, “that’s all. An intruder.”

“Enola!” Tewkesbury hissed, and he pointed at the floor. There was something wet, and dark pooling by the window. There was a loud shattering sound of glass outside then, causing both of them to jump.

Enola ran to the window, ignoring whatever the wet substance was underneath. The window was open, and Enola saw off in the distance a figure in white roaming the grounds. “Tewkesbury!” she called.

The young Lord came running to her side. “Enola, what is it?”

“Look!” she hissed.

The bride, who had been described as haunting only the halls of the old home, was roaming the grounds. Enola saw her white dress bobbing along the fields. And somewhere, Enola could hear an earie, faint version of the wedding march playing.

“Run!” Enola said.

She grabbed Tewkesbury by the hand, gripping his tightly, and together they ran through the halls of the old estate out into the cool night air after the dead bride. But the minute they were outside, the music stopped, and the bride was seemingly gone.

“No!” Enola cried. “I saw her----she was there.”

“I saw her too,” said Tewkesbury, “but Enola, maybe she really---”

“She’s not a ghost,” Enola cried, “maybe someone pretending to be a ghost at the very least. She’s a distraction.”

“How do you figure?”

“Old homes like these----they have wine cellars, don’t they?” Enola asked.

“Yes, a majority of them,” said Tewkesbury, “and Lord Whittier does enjoy his drink, which includes fine wines.”

“I think, if we were to wait until morning, we would find that the substance under the window is wine, and that the shattering we heard was that of wine glass being dropped as someone snuck out the window. What we saw wasn’t a haunting. It was a robbery.”

[lesbianfeminists]

“The protests organized by antipornography feminists were larger and received more publicity than those organized by their conservative counterparts (Bronstein 2011). Not surprisingly, some conservative individuals and organizations sought to join them. WAP’s landmark 1979 march in Times Square drew conservatives among the estimated 5,000 marchers, but feminist ‘marshals scuffled with police to keep willing conservative allies out of their ranks’ and destroyed their signs (Bronstein 2011:68; Potter 2012). Feminists worked to distance themselves from conservatives. In Pittsburg, for example, local antipornography conservatives sought to ‘claim common ground with feminists to disguise their sexist goals,’ but in response, the Pittsburg group changed their name from Women Against Pornography to Women Against Sexual Violence in Pornography and Media to discourage affiliation attempts by the Right who, they wrote, ‘are right now trying to use us and our slideshow to push their repressive anti-porn bill’ (Bronstein 2011: 276-77).”

Frenemies: Feminists, Conservatives, and Sexual Violence. Nancy Whittier, 2018.

[just-the-hiddles]

True Love’s Course Chapter 13 | Christmas in Connecticut

Pairing:  Tom Hiddleston x OFC

Lex Whittier is desperate to make it as a serious stage actress.  She has managed to land the role of Katharina in a new production of Taming of the Shrew.  This could be her big break.  The male lead is replaced by Tom Hiddleston, the major stage and film actor.  Lex thinks could help her career but has second thoughts.  She had heard Tom was a nice guy, then why he is acting like such an ass.  

This Chapter:  With Tom and Lex reconciled, Tom must now face Lex’s parents.  Will his charms win them over?

Word Count: 2845

Warnings:  Swearing, asshole parents

Tag List: @winterisakiller @nonsensicalobsessions @drakesfiance @jennytwoshoes @pinkzz123 @klbates22 @jumpxjess @sterwild @obtain-this-grain

Lex pointed out all the sights of New Haven to Tom as they strolled through the snowy streets.  When it got too cold, they ducked into the nearest store and browsed whatever was on sale.  Despite the fight, there was an ease and comfort to the two of them Lex relished.

The day was not without its mishaps.  Lex slipped on a patch of black ice hidden under some snow, taking Tom down with her.  As the two of them tumbled to the hard cold pavement, Lex heard a telltale sign of ripping fabric.

“Was that you or me?”  Tom groaned as Lex toppled onto him with a thud.

The two of them examined their person to determine the origin.  Lex cringed as she placed her hand on her backside and felt the lacy fabric of her underwear rather than rough denim.

“It would be me.”

Tom glanced behind her and his eyes widened at the sight of Lex’s lacy undergarments.

“Ooh, darling, did you have a hot date in mind later?  Because if you did, I’m jealous.”

Lex smacked him hard in the shoulder as she attempted to get up.

“As you may recall, I left in a hurry and I planned for a romantic time in New York with my boyfriend before he fucked that shit up.”

Tom winced at the memory.

“Fair enough.”

“Just help me up.”

Tom pulled himself to his feet with difficulty and then helped Lex to her feet.  As soon as she was upright, Lex tugged on her sweater and coat, trying in vain to cover the massive rip down her backside. Tom chuckled at the dance Lex performed.

“Lex, dear, you look ridiculous.  There is no way that will work.”

“I’m sure if I just…” Lex stuttered as she kept tugging at the fabric.

“Here take this,”  Tom offered Lex his coat. “There was a clothing store round back.  We can get you new trousers there.”

Lex opened her mouth to protest. But Tom cut her off.

“This is no time to argue.  We will both freeze, so let’s just get on with it.”

With a grunt Tom couldn’t quite make out, Lex shrugged on Tom’s coat.  It was still warm from his heat and big enough to cover her entire backside.

“What was that, darling?”  Tom asked, pushing his ear toward Lex, signaling his lack of hearing.

“Thank you,”  Lex grumbled more so at the situation rather than at Thomas.

“You’re welcome.”  Tom placed a kiss on her forehead as they turned around. “Now let’s see about some new jeans to cover that delicious rear of yours so I can get my jacket back.”

They headed into the nearest clothing store and Lex found a new pair of jeans, which Tom paid for after much protesting from Lex. They spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of New Haven, only returning to Tom’s hotel when the cold became too unbearable. Before long, it was time to head back home.

“So, we should get going if we want to get back in time,” Lex mentioned as she rose from the couch. Tom rose, pulling on the hem of his sweater.

“What are you doing?” Lex yelped.

“Changing my clothes. I’m not meeting your parents dressed like this.”

He gestured at his casual outfit. Lex stared at him.

“Do you mind?” Tom made a spinning motion with his fingers. “I am not a strip club performer.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m always serious, darling,” Tom responded straight-faced.

Lex shrugged it off, their relationship was still on shaky foundation, she didn’t want to mess up whatever goodwill there may between the two of them. She moved to turn her back only to hear Tom laughing.

“Lex,” Tom pleaded, grabbing her shoulder to turn her. “I was kidding! You have seen far more than me shirtless.”

Lex pouted as she smacked Tom in the chest.

“Not funny. I’m fragile.”

“Fair enough, but you can’t blame a man for trying to make you laugh.”

“I hope you still have it when you get done tonight.”

“Lex, this is your parents. They created you, they can’t be all bad.”

She rolled her eyes at the statement.

“You do not understand, Tom. They are judgmental, closed-minded, and just awful really. They have no respect acting as a profession. You would think I was selling children on the black market they way they talk.”

Lex felt tears pricking at eyes as she recalled some of the conversations over the years. She was sugarcoating it to an extent for Tom. She knew it was a bad idea to not tell him everything, but maybe her parents meeting a successful, very successful stage and screen actor would soften their hearts.

“Hey, hey. No tears, darling. I am sure we can handle whatever they throw at us.”

Lex nodded as Tom wiped away her tears with the sweater in his hand.

“I hope so.”

“I know so. Now let me finish getting dressed and we will head out.” Tom kissed her temple as he changed into a pair a neat slacks and a button-down shirt before they headed out to Lex’s car.

-

Tom spent most of the drive asking Lex questions about Emily, Andrew, and Phillip. His bad habit of over preparing. Lex answered every question to the best of her ability and by the time they pulled into the driveway, Tom felt he was ready to face whatever lay in wait inside the colonial.

Lex took him through the front door, knowing her mother would be in the kitchen cooking. Even a few seconds of buffer was better than nothing.

“Mom? Dad?” Lex yelled into the expansive home as she showed Tom. The home seemed to go for miles. Everything was immaculate. It was something out of a magazine. The perfection unsettled Tom. The place looked like a museum, not a home. He was determined to make a good impression.

“Sweetie!” Emily’s voice echoed from the kitchen.

“Be nice,” Lex whispered to Tom before walking to greet her mother.

“Mom.”

Emily emerged wearing a red canvas apron. Although sprinkled with flour, Lex knew full well the last time her mother baked was when Phillip was in grade school. All part of the show.

“Where have you been all day, Lex? I was hoping you would help me with dinner.”

“I was in town, showing Tom around.”

Lex gestured towards Tom who was still standing in the foyer as though he was just another part of the decor in the home. Emily’s eyes widened as she took in the sight of Tom. Even in his current outfit, he dressed 100 times better than anyone else Lex ever brought home.

“Well who do we have here?” Emily stated as she stepped forward, wiping non-existent crumbs from her hands.

“Tom, ma’am.”

Emily giggled at Tom’s accent.

“Lex, you didn’t mention Tom was from Britain.”

“Must have slipped my mind.” Lex mumbled back, disinterested.

“Well Tom,” Emily cooed as she led Tom towards the living room, “How are you faring in this harsh winter weather of New England?”

Tom chuckled.

“Just fine, Ms. Whittier. I was certain to pack plenty of warm clothes. Thank you for asking and for allowing me to intrude on Christmas festivities.”

“Nonsense. Any friend of Lex is a friend of ours.”

Lex rolled her eyes, her mom was laying it on thick. The only friends allowed at her house growing up were the ones from the right families with the right last names and alma maters.

“Well, thank you just the same,” Tom responded with a smile, laying it on just as thick.

At a fear of gagging on the saccharin in the air, Lex cleared her throat.

“Mom, when will dinner be ready?”

“Soon, Lex. I was just going to show Tom to your father’s study.”

The study. The infamous Andrew study. While the rest of the house was all Emily’s doing, the study was a bastion of masculinity. All dark wood paneling and leather. Lex swore during her younger years, they mounted a stuffed animal head above the fireplace before being removed one day when a dead animal head being one’s house became gauche. Lex and Tom waited in the hallway while Emily fetched Tom.

“Andrew, come and meet Lex’s friend, Tom.” Emily asked as she opened the door.

Andrew glanced up from his papers to throw a look at his wife before grumbling to stand. He hated meeting Lex’s friends. A bunch of dirty hippies he called them once. Not an ounce of sense or self-preservation between any of them. He doubted the new one would be any different. Imagine when he saw Tom.

“Tom. Andrew Whittier.”

“Thomas Hiddleston, sir. My pleasure. You have a lovely home.”

Andrew scanned Tom’s appearance with a critical eye. No visible tattoos or piercings. His clothes absent of holes and paint.

“Tom came over to surprise Lex from London. He’s British,” Emily piped in, breaking the awkward silence.

“Seems kind of a long way for a surprise.” Andrew harumped still looking Tom over.

“Well your daughter is worth it.”

Andrew’s face remained fixed.

“Hiddleston? I’ve heard that name before. Any relation to Mary and Charles Hiddleston of Bridgeport.”

Tom smiled.

“I don’t think so. I’m not aware of any relatives over here in the States, but I will ask my mother the next we speak.”

“Hmmm. I still think I have met you somewhere before.”

Lex sensing what would come changed the subject.

“Tom went Cambridge, Dad.”

Andrew’s eyebrows pitched up.

“Really?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Studied Economics?”

“I’m afraid not. I’m terrible at maths.”

Andrew frowned.

“Political Sciences?”

“Classics.”

Andrew’s brows now furrowed.

“What does one do with a degree in Classics? Andrew spit out the last word like a curse word.

“Well in my case, I went to graduate school.”

“Shall we retire to the dining room for supper?” Lex interrupted.

Emily jumped.

“Oh yes, dear! Would you mind fetching Phillip?”

Lex rolled her eyes.

“Sure.”

Lex moved to the foyer where beckoned to her brother from the first floor.

“PHILLIP! DINNER!”

Phillip trudged himself downstairs after Lex yelled up at him. There was no way she was going into his bedroom. Her tetanus shot was not up to date.

“Calm down, Butt… Holy, fuck! It’s… It’s… Loki!”

“Phillip, Language!” both Andrew and Emily exclaimed in unison at their son.

Phillip froze on the bottom step as Tom came into view. Tom smiled and approached him.

“No need to apologize, Mr. and Mrs. Whittier. It’s not the first time someone has reacted that way.”  Phillip remained speechless as Tom extended his hand.

“Pleasure to meet you Phillip. Tom.”

Phillip shook Tom’s hand in silence. Lex took the opportunity once Tom stepped away to pinch Phillip’s sides.

“Ow! Hey!”

“Close your mouth, loser.”

Phillip shut his mouth.

“Since when do you have cool, Hollywood actor boyfriends?”

“Yeah, Lex since when?” Tom piped up.

His eyes looked sincere, mirroring the looks on her family’s faces but she only saw the glint of mischief in his eye and the laugh tickling the side of his earnest smile. How she wished to smack it off his face or better yet kiss it off.

“What is the meaning of this Alexandra?” her father asked with narrowing eyes.

Lex opened her mouth to explain but Tom stepped forward.

“Forgive me. I just getting ready to mention, I’m an actor. Your son, Phillip, recognizes me from my work in the Marvel franchise.”

“He’s fucking brilliant.” Phillip chimed in, earning another jab in the ribs from Lex.

She could sense the tension in the air and attempted to cut it.

“Why don’t we sit down for dinner and Tom can answer everyone’s questions?”

“That sounds like a lovely idea, darling. Shall you show me the way?” Tom joined, offering his elbow to Lex, who took it. Tom leaned in to place a tender kiss on Lex’s lips.

Phillip hopped down and trotted after Lex, regaining control of his body. Emily and Andrew stood glowering in the hall before retiring to the dining room. As they sat down, Tom gave Lex’s hand a little squeeze.

“How am I doing, darling?” Tom whispered as they poured drinks.

“Brilliantly. Now to see if we can get through to dessert with no bloodshed.”

Tom smiled and gave another reassuring squeeze. But Lex knew better, they didn’t even make past the salad.

-

Phillip started off the conversation by peppering Tom with questions about Loki, Marvel and Chris Hemsworth. All the while, Emily and Andrew sat in silence, sipping on their wine and whiskey respectively.

“Is Hemsworth as big as he looks on the screen?”

Tom laughed.

“Yes.”

“And what about Chris’s work…”

“Since when are you so interested in Chris Hemsworth?” Lex questioned.

“Since now. Shut up, dork. You have been holding out on me.”

Andrew cleared his throat and Phillip sunk back into his chair.

“So Tom…” Andrew began lowering his glass to the table, “What did your family think about you going into acting?”

Tom glanced at Lex knowing the weight of the question.

“Well, I think as every parent is, they were shocked, but in the end, they were thrilled and have been very supportive.”

Lex smiled over at Tom.

“Now that he has become so popular, even more so.” She gave his arm a little squeeze.

“So do you just do these little movies or do you do anything else?” Emily questioned.

Tom choked on his wine.

“Those little movies, Mother, broke the records for the box office. Marvel is the biggest franchise around.”

Tom regained his composure.

“But to answer your question, Emily,” he gritted his teeth as he said her name, “I got started on the stage but I have done movies, television and the live productions.”

Lex beamed at Tom’s accomplishments.

“Anything we might know?” Andrew asked, a bite to his words.

“Hamlet. Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Betrayal by Harold Pinter. On TV, the Night Manager. Movies, Crimson Peak. I don’t want to brag.”

Andrew was unmoved.

“Didn’t the Night Manager caused quite a controversy when it aired?” Emily asked, “remember Lex mentioning something.”

Both Tom and Lex blushed.

“Um…” Tom stuttered, choosing his words, “that was probably me.”

“Really?”

“Well, there is a sex scene in one of the episodes. I bared my backside in it.”

“Oh my!” Emily commented clutching her chest.

“Do you do these sorts of scenes often… Tom?” Andrew asked glaring at Tom across the table.

“Only when necessary,” Tom chuckled, sensing the path the conversation was going down.

“Ever done a sex scene with another woman while dating my daughter?”

“DAD!”

“Well, I think I have a right…”

“It’s quite alright, Lex. No sir, I haven’t. My intentions are entirely honorable.”

Andrew mumbled something under his breath.

“What was that, Dad, I can’t hear you?”

“I said,” Andrew stated, slamming his fists on the table, sending silverware clattering, “this man is nothing more than a common gigolo.”

“I BEG YOUR PARDON?!” Tom bellowed, rising from his chair.

“You heard me. And I would advise you to watch your tone in my house.”

“No sir, I will not. I have sat here with a smile while you have saw fit to belittle and condemn all I hold dear me, including your own daughter. She is a wonderful actress and an even better person. I used to think she was speaking in hyperbole when speaking of the two of you but I can see now she was being modest.”

Andrew rose to meet Tom.

“Sit down, sir. It is my turn to speak. It is clear no one will ever meet your expectations unless they are just like you. But you are small sir. You are small and closed-minded. And your wife is too.”

Emily gasped.

“Oh do shut up, Mother.” Lex piped in, rising to match Tom, “Tom has shown you nothing but kindness and courtesy and you repay him by calling him a whore. Is that what you think of me, nothing more than a common whore?”

Lex’s eyes flooded with tears. Emily sat in silence while Andrew stood seething. His face a bright shade of red and chest heaving with heavy, labored breath.

“If the shoe fits.” Andrew quipped back.

Lex nodded, letting the tears fall. She felt a tug on her hand and saw Tom walking from the table.

“Come on Lex, we are done here. I am sorry you were made to live here under this oppression.”

Lex got up and Andrew shouted after them as they went to retrieve Lex’s things.

“If you leave this house Alexandra, that’s it. No more support, you get nothing from us.”

Lex turned to face her father as she opened the front door.

“How is that any different from any other day, father? You never gave me anything other than grief and sorrow. I’m done with you. Goodbye.”

Lex slammed the door with all her might. She looked up at Tom who was panting from the rage and beaming with pride.

“Hot damn that felt good.”

[laconservancy]

The ‘70s Turn 50: Celebrating the Decade that Broke the Mold

The 1976 Bonaventure Hotel is an iconic 1970s building in downtown L.A. Photo by Architectural Resources Group.

The Los Angeles Conservancy celebrates the 1970s’ golden anniversary with The ‘70s Turn 50, an exciting initiative exploring the decade’s lasting imprint on L.A. County’s built environment. This yearlong campaign will raise public awareness and educate Angelenos about 1970s architectural and cultural heritage sites in Los Angeles. 

Why Fifty Years?

The fifty-year mark is significant in historic preservation. One of the criteria for designation on the National Register of Historic Places states that properties under the age of fifty should not be considered eligible unless they are of “exceptional importance.” While there is no age limit in Los Angeles for local landmark designation, the fifty-year rule remains a benchmark for examining buildings and structures from a period not yet long-gone. It serves as a rallying cry for preservationists anxious to spotlight places that may be at risk.  

In 2010, the Conservancy leveraged the 1960s’ fiftieth birthday to shine a light on the growing number of lost or threatened buildings from that decade. Increasing public awareness and pressure helped spare some threatened ‘60s buildings.

The 1966 Fairmont Century Plaza (formerly, the Century Plaza Hotel), which had faced potential demolition, was successfully saved thanks to massive public support and a sensitive redevelopment plan brokered by the Conservancy and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Instilling value for structures not yet in our collective consciousness is half the battle when it comes to preserving them. However, those most in need of attention are in constant flux, moving targets based on the time and changing trends. 

Threats to the ‘70s 

In the decade since the Conservancy launched its efforts to preserve resources from the 1960s, structures from the 1970s have moved increasingly into the cross-hairs—especially those made with faltering building materials.

Gasoline shortages caused by the 1973 oil embargo quickly curtailed the postwar housing explosion in the United States, a boom that had resulted in the construction of roughly six million housing units in California. Construction shrank as ‘stagflation,’ a term coined in the ‘70s to describe the simultaneous occurrence of slow economic growth and high rates of inflation, gripped the country. The subsequent emphasis on cheap construction materials resulted in buildings that were difficult and expensive to maintain.

1970s buildings also face an increased threat due to a lack of enthusiasm for the aesthetics of the era. The design features and fads iconic to it (shag carpet, faux wood-grain paneling, platform shoes, and macramé) tend to be polarizing ones, and its architecture may be equally difficult for many to embrace. 

A Time of Experimentation

Yet in Southern California, the ‘70s marked a time of unprecedented architectural exploration, and the structures left in its wake are some of the finest examples of that creative spirit. Large architectural firms expanded beyond the plain International Style glass box with a variety of building shapes and experimented with glass-skinned exteriors that gave their corporate commissions a simple yet beautiful aesthetic. 

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel (John Portman, 1976), the colorful Pacific Design Center (Pelli and Gruen Associates, 1975), and the Federal Aviation Administration Headquarters (César Pelli, Anthony J. Lumsden, DMJM, 1972) exemplify the originality of the decade.

Simultaneously, schools of architecture, such as the newly formed Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA; the School of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; and the radical Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), joined the ranks of the University of Southern California’s established architecture school in producing many of the leading architects of the time. Craig Hodgetts, Robert Mangurian, Thom Mayne, Michael Rotondi, Eric Owen Moss, Eugene Kupper, and Frederick Fisher all taught at these institutions, which provided them the means to experiment despite limited budgets. 

Frank Gehry’s 1978 re-design of his Santa Monica residence using cheap and accessible materials was the first project to bring him significant attention. It catapulted the Los Angeles Deconstructivism movement onto the national stage.

The colorful Pacific Design Center’s first building, the Blue Building, rose at the corner of Melrose Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood in 1975. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy.

Movers and Shakers

On the social and cultural front, the ‘70s were a crucible for movements. The Los Angeles Conservancy, Whittier Conservancy, Pasadena Heritage, and many other preservation and heritage groups were founded in the 1970s in response to the demolition and threatened destruction of historic sites across the County.   Similarly, the environmental movement, which gained national attention with landmark legislation, such as the National Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act, solidified in Los Angeles through the efforts of new organizations like TreePeople and the California Conservation Corps. 

Begun in the ‘60s, the battle for civil rights continued, now in tandem with and alongside anti-Vietnam War marches and protests. The Chicano Moratorium took place in 1970, imprinting East Los Angeles with the memories of its message, marchers, and casualties. In the following years, both the women’s and LGBTQ+ liberation movements would make their presence known across Southern California, as well. Despite Tom Wolf’s descriptor of the 1970s as the “Me” decade, Los Angeles retained strong elements of civic engagement and activism.

Celebrating the ‘70s

The Conservancy will explore all of this and much more through The ‘70s Turn 50 initiative. Throughout 2020, we will tell the stories and explore the legacies of the 1970s in a variety of ways, including:

Holding a yearlong tour and discussion series at significant ‘70s buildings across the County.

Hosting special tours of buildings and sites of architectural and cultural importance.

Nominating structures from the decade for landmark designations.

Launching a social media campaign and a new ‘70s-centered microsite.  

Most importantly, we will build a coalition of fellow organizations eager to join us in this enterprise. We hope that Conservancy members and citizens of Los Angeles County will create a force for valuing and preserving the rich heritage and unique culture of the 1970s.

Visit our microsite at laconservancy.org/70sTurn50 to learn more about this initiative, our programming partners, and upcoming events celebrating the 1970s. We will add more content and announce additional events throughout 2020.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.1 (after 1950)

1953 – Andhra State is formed, consisting of a Telugu-speaking area carved out of India's Madras State. 1953 – A United States-South Korea mutual defense treaty is concluded in Washington, D.C. 1955 – The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is established. 1957 – The motto In God We Trust first appears on U.S. paper currency. 1958 – The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics is replaced by NASA. 1960 – Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1961 – The United States Defense Intelligence Agency is formed, becoming the country's first centralized military intelligence organization. 1961 – East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. 1961 – The CTV Television Network, Canada's first private television network, is launched. 1962 – James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying racial segregation rules. 1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. 1964 – Japanese Shinkansen ("bullet trains") begin high-speed rail service from Tokyo to Osaka. 1966 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with no survivors in Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9. 1968 – Guyana nationalizes the British Guiana Broadcasting Service, which would eventually become part of the National Communications Network, Guyana. 1969 – Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time. 1971 – Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida. 1971 – The first practical CT scanner is used to diagnose a patient. 1975 – Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines. 1978 – Tuvalu gains independence from the United Kingdom. 1979 – Pope John Paul II begins his first pastoral visit to the United States. 1979 – The MTR, Hong Kong's rapid transit railway system, opens. 1982 – Helmut Kohl replaces Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor of Germany through a constructive vote of no confidence. 1982 – EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) opens at Walt Disney World in Florida. 1982 – Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan; on the same day, Sony releases the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind. 1985 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Israel attacks the Palestine Liberation Organization's Tunisia headquarters during Operation Wooden Leg. 1987 – The 5.9 Mw  Whittier Narrows earthquake shakes the San Gabriel Valley with a Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 200. 1989 – Denmark introduces the world's first legal same-sex registered partnerships. 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Siege of Dubrovnik begins. 1994 – Palau enters a Compact of Free Association with the United States. 2000 – Israel-Palestinian conflict: Palestinians protest the murder of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah by Israeli police in northern Israel, beginning the "October 2000 events". 2001 – Militants attack the state legislature building in Kashmir, killing 38. 2009 – The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over the judicial functions of the House of Lords. 2012 – A ferry collision off the coast of Hong Kong kills 38 people and injures 102 others. 2014 – A series of explosions at a gunpowder plant in Bulgaria completely destroys the factory, killing 15 people. 2014 – A double bombing of an elementary school in Homs, Syria kills over 50 people. 2015 – A gunman kills nine people at a community college in Oregon. 2015 – Heavy rains trigger a major landslide in Guatemala, killing 280 people. 2015 – The American cargo vessel SS El Faro sinks with all of its 33 crew after steaming into the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin 2017 – An independence referendum, later declared illegal by the Constitutional Court of Spain, takes place in Catalonia. 2017 – Fifty-eight people are killed and 869 others injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival at the Las Vegas Strip in the United States; the gunman, Stephen Paddock, later commits suicide. 2018 – The International Court of Justice rules that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean with Bolivia.

[thepoetoaster]

The first time I touched down at LAX, I made my grand, dramatic debutante entrance amidst massive protests against Trump’s immigration ban. There was more traffic, as my Lyft driver Curtiss would tell me later, “than he had ever seen in his life”, and he had lived in Los Angeles forever, so you know that was really saying something.

I feel like I must have waited hours for an uber and Lyft with no luck, so when he finally showed up, I was so grateful and relieved, even as he apologized for the delays.  We had a great conversation in the car on the way to the Airbnb and I felt like I had such a deep connection to him, it was crazy. When he dropped me off I told him the “universe has my back”, and it was just like such an epic day in my life, I’ll never forget it.

A poster of the “Titanic” was in my airbnb room; I slept maybe 5 hours but woke up incredibly energized and excited because I was in LA! I had my camera at the ready and climbed to the top of a hill in Whittier to watch the sunrise over the vast, flat landscape covered with sunshine and palm trees. And that’s only the first part of the story. I feel like maybe I experienced more magic and synchronicities there in that one week than the rest of my life put together. Well that’s probably just me being dramatic, but you get the point.

...and you wonder why I'm so obsessed with this place?!  Anyways, I’m thinking about booking a plane ticket back there soon, to see if it’s some place I could honestly see myself living.  Good luck getting me back though....

[jacobknight-jk]

The WPD Threw Them to The Ground

The WPD Threw Them to The Ground

” Get A Job F*ckers”

This, a yelled jab from a passing by car, was the first thing I heard when I stepped onto the protest camp in front of Whittier City Hall.

And that messaged echoed in my mind while I watched officers of the Whittier Police Department push and hold people to the ground.

https://twitter.com/MissNayOhME/status/1288305542289489921

And while this obviously made me mad, I knew that…

[alaturkanews]

Parents Protest The Statewide Mandate To Vaccinate All Students In Whittier

Parents Protest The Statewide Mandate To Vaccinate All Students In Whittier

Parents lined the streets in Whittier to demand a choice when it comes to vaccinating their children against COVID-19. Pat Harvey reports.

[hispaniccalifas]

Rancho Los Nietos

Rancho Los Nietos was 300,000 acre land grant the first of its kind in California and among the largest. It was granted to Manuel Nieto 1734-1804 by governor Pedro Fages. Nieto was originally from Sinaloa and worked in the Presidio of San Diego.

The Rancho located in the Los Angeles Basin in between The Santa Ana and LA River. From the ocean all the way inland til about 12 miles from San Gabriel Mission located near present day Whittier.

Don Manuel Perez Nieto moved into the land once he retired Although we was retired he built a Adobe hut and tended to his animals and grew corn and wheat

The padres at Mission San Gabriel were not pleased to have Don Manuel using land that they wanted, and they protested.  Don Manuel felt that he was being harassed by the padres, and he complained to the governor in Monterey. Though the Spanish governor generally did not favor the missions, in this case he sided with the padres.  A portion of Nieto's rancho was taken in 1796 for the use of Mission San Gabriel.

After don Manuel’s death the Rancho was passed onto his 4 kids. In 1834 the rancho was divided into five smaller ranchos, each of which was granted to a member of the Nieto family.  Rancho Las Bolsas, a grant of about 31,000 acres, was given to Catarina Ruiz, widow of Manuel Nieto. All the ranchos were as follows Los Alamitos, Las Bolsas, Los Cerritos, Los Coyotes, Santa Gertrudes, Palos Altos.