#True Danziger

[stiwfssr]

[terrians]

My Earth 2 Fanfiction

I keep most of my stuff on anon so I thought this would be a neat way to compile what I've done.

seasons change and i decay - Devon Adair - 292 words - G-889 didn't seem to like her very much.

Princess - Devon Adair/Bess Martin (one-sided) - 263 words - Everyone assumed her dream had been about another man.

Pouring from an Empty Cup - Devon Adair/Julia Heller - 973 words - Julia works day and night to find a cure when the crew gets sick again. Devon thinks she should rest instead.

Stages - Devon Adair & Uly Adair, Devon Adair & Yale - 635 words - If it weren't for Yale, Devon would come home to an empty unit. He's there when Uly isn't, when Devon had permission to be a person who's hurting rather than a mother who's strong.

Wildflower - Bess Martin - 898 words - On the road to New Pacifica, Bess reflects on her life.

Come So Far - John Danziger & True Danziger - 1,380 words - Danziger never took care of himself right, and True never let him get away with it.

Desiccation - Bess Martin - 749 words - "Have you ever watched anyone trying to eat dirt? Trying to suck the moisture out of mud?"

Possessed - Julia Heller - 1,291 words - Danziger's actions while possessed bring back unpleasant memories for Julia.

[starry-beetle]

I haven't gone giffing a series like this in 10+ years HELLPPP

i started watching earth 2 with a friend and uhhhh BARK BARK BARK

[paleclownchick]

show me how the gods kill

[heyholmesletsgo]

Tagged by @galauvant, thank you :D

Rules: shuffle your 'on repeat' playlist and post the first ten tracks, then tag ten people.

1) The Wrong Company by Flogging Molly

2) Love My Way by the Psychedelic Furs

3) Maybe or Maybe Not by the Adicts

4) Back In Your Head by Tegan and Sara

5) London Dungeon by the Misfits

6) Gossip Folks by Missy Elliott

7) Trust You by Mesh

8) Backslide by Rancid

9) Wild in the Streets by the Circle Jerks

10) Young & Beautiful by Lana del Rey

Tagging @alectoperdita, @apocrypha73, @snarkivistfic, @zaidnovi, @aoxue, @thesilversun, @peridot-tears and whoever else wants to share songs :)

[milfbrainrot]

anyway when will i learn that if a game is entirely made up of text with no voice acting i will absorb no more than 10% of what's going on

[vintagerpg]

When I wrote my essay on dungeonsynth for The Believer back in 2023, I made the usual points: its really came together as a genre in the ’90s thanks to the work of Mortiis, though it had clear predecessors in acts like Tangerine Dream and Danzig’s instrumental project Black Aria (1992); explicit connections to D&D and other RPGs came later. And all that’s still true, but I’ve since been introduced (by Jamie Sutcliffe at Strange Attractor) to a double LP that directly ties D&D to electronic music earlier than Corvus Neblus’ Strahd’s Possession (1999): Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Quest: The Music (1985).

To be clear, while it sometimes strays into territory we would now identify as dungeonsynth, this is not really dungeonsynth. It has more in common with the Dream, John Carpenter’s scores and the odd world of psychedelic electronic music that was floating around in the early ’80s — synth-based meditation music that would soon become known by the fairly meaningless umbrella marketing term “New Age.” There are eight different artists here (they sound almost cohesive) providing a score for a (brutal, ridiculous) dungeon crawl plotted out of the record sleeves, punctuated with menacing voice overs by actor Valentine Dyall. There are some corny bits and some, uh, sections that are clearly inspired by other music (“The Living Dead” is basically a cover of the theme from Return of the Living Dead and there are echoes of some incidental music from Ghostbusters and countless videogames, at least to my ear), but overall I think it hangs together remarkably well. I don’t know if it screams “D&D” to me, but I dig early ’80s synth music and this winds up on my turntable pretty regularly.

The fact that this thing is officially licensed is the really bonkers bit. David Miller apparently secured Gary Gygax’s blessing in-person while he was still exiled in Los Angeles, which is sort of wild considering TSR UK still existed as an entity at that point. Aside of providing a mish-mash of art (the border work from Dragonlance, Easley’s cover from the Dungeon Masters Guide and another Easley Dragonlance piece in the gatefold), TSR seems to have not had any further part in the product. What a rare and delightful artifact!

[kurganswife]

Oh to be True Danziger's stepmommy

Spc:John Danziger gifs I've found here on Tumblr (creds to the people who had posted them btw)

[girlactionfigure]

Amen.

Micha Mitch Danzig

A friend tried to describe a moment she had on vacation in Italy.

She didn’t have the words to articulate the feeling she wanted to convey.

She didn’t need them. I knew exactly what she meant.

On public transportation, she suddenly saw two small red-headed children.

That’s when she lost the ability to speak. She just used a hand gesture to indicate having no air.

Who understands how we feel?

We ALL feel like that.

Our eyes are watching for them. Our heart yearns for them to be safe, to come home.

The Bibas children are children most of us have never met and yet they are ours and they have been torn from our arms.

We watched Shiri, their mother, terrified, bravely trying to shield them.

We watched Yarden, their father, shattered by the cruelty of his captors who told him that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir are dead.

We don’t know what is true.

What we do know is that there is no peace. No respite.

Not even on vacation in beautiful Italy. They are always with us, the hope and the horror. That's what family is.

We cannot rest until they are returned home and we cannot, we must not stop fighting until we are certain this can never happen again.

Forest Rain Marcia

Art by Mirit Noyman

[masha-nikita]

The Archetypes of Red Rose, White Rose

I need to balance my brain out due to sudden onset of depression. It is the result. Rommel is probably the only general who, even if you draw him from the back, he's still recognizable- flowers, a camera, and love for beauty. Rommel has a Venus-Mercury conjunct with a direct Neptune influence; he is going to appreciate artistic expressions.

In fact, this colored-doodle with an unintentional Mucha vibe has the energy of his wife Lucy in mind. According to some sources, Rommel wrote home to Lucy daily, as it was reported to be his mental crutch- I imagine it to be transcendental emotional support, not unlike my own experience, my own relationship with our Tumblr community here. Whether you guys interact with me directly or not, you keep me alive. My sincere thanks to you.

Lucy was a formal dancer in Danzig with a decent middle-class background, her father seemed to be a land owner- Lucy being able to do art, probably added to his admiration for her- fellow artists, angelic companionship.

I suppose he did need emotional supports, and a lot of it-- Rommel is the only high commander with whom Kessering "the smiling Albert" did not get along-- which is a feat. After all, Kessering was very renowned for his exceedingly cordial and diplomatic temperament. The same could be said of von Rundstedt, the calm, gentlemanly, old Prussian field marshal. These two could put up with some bad BS from any one else, except Rommel. He was too intense, too mentally off-balance, too difficult to deal with for his colleagues.

There are a few things I noticed from Rommel's biography (including the Trail of the Fox, 2005), that allow me to make some observations. His love for Lucy appears to be non-sexual. They had their only son 12 years after marriage. That is a pretty long time, not customary with a Scorpio man who has a 8th house Mars (who is supposed to have at least above average sex drive).

As a matter of fact, Rommel had a daughter with Walburga Stemmer before his marriage with Lucy was finalized. At that point Rommel’s family felt the need to step in and strong-armed him back with his fiancée-- one reason being to prevent the young lieutenant from the pitfalls of sex and alcohol. In my humble opinion, the subtext here might be Lucy would not lead him astray in that regard, therefore his conservative family would rather have him marrying Lucy.

A side note, Stemmer family still holds a collection of hopelessly romantic letters from Rommel. Did Rommel write comparable letters to Lucy at that point in time? A bit hard to tell.

I could not recall which article comments that Rommel was "hen-pecked' in the household, but Lucy was dominant at home, that part had been very true.

Ouch, I don't know, some aspects of this living environment must've been toxic to Rommel no matter how much some folks wants to romanticize it. It is horrible to be in a friend group where there's a mean girl boss who takes pride in ruling over her husband and turning any girl who crosses her into a persona-non-grata. But I digress. Back to my title.

Nevertheless, for me, Lucy being archetypal White Rose still holds water as a concept.

The Red Rose- White Rose archetypes originated from the same-titled short novel by Zhang Ailing, one of the 20th century's greatest female writers. She depicts love's tragedies as Chin dynasty fell apart and China marched into an era of post-colonialism, world war II, civil wars and partisan conflicts-- and eventually, modernity.

White rose is your ideal wife, the guardian of your family's social standing. She is angelic, she seems docile, she reminds you that you are from a place of honor and integrity, not of seedy backgrounds and carnal desires. White rose kills love by loving you, by being stable, by calming you down whenever you freak out. Very slowly, she castrates you, she brings you home to domesticate you.

The Red Rose symbolizes those dark desires, a black hole that sucks you in to have sex with you, a fragrant bed, a sex dungeon you do not have the will power to claw yourself out of. Red rose loves you by conquering you, destroying you and everything you represent and cherish with triumphant strides. Very quickly Red rose tears you down, burns all your bridges, until you are beyond recognition, until you are flesh, blood, fire and desire, a literal mess.

It is implied in Ailing's novel that men invariably choose the White Rose, because they are human, all too human. Marrying her, he regrets it; not marrying her, he regrets it even more. Such is love's tragedy in the face of humanity, and tragedy is the only inevitability in Ailing's universe. That's why I pull Lucy in as a faint through-line in my Montgomery x Rommel fanfics... not that I am going to write any more, I don't think so.

And yes, Red Rose is synonymous with Bernard Montgomery, in my fandom brain's humble opinion.

I know I am weird.

[technofeudalism]

Hey, I'm just getting into the punk music genre, and I was wondering if you had any recommendations?

oh boy anon strap in because you activated my trap card on this one. for those who may not know, punk rock is one of my true loves. here are some of my favorite albums of all time

Misfits - Everything with Danzig, particularly Static Age, Walk Among Us and Earth AD/Wolfs Blood

NOFX - Everything before 2003, particularly Punk in Drublic, White Trash, Two Heebs & A Bean and Pump Up the Valuum

Propagandhi - Everything, particularly Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes

The Clash - London Calling

Ramones - Rocket to Russia

Black Flag - Damaged

Rancid - Let's Go & ...And Out Come the Wolves

The Distillers - Coral Fang

Reagan Youth - Youth Anthems for the New Order

Angry Samoans - Back from Samoa

Anti-Flag - Die for the Government

Pennywise - Land of the Free?

AFI - Answer That & Stay Fashionable, Very Proud of Ya, All Hallows EP, Sing the Sorrow, pretty much everything before 2006.

Transplants - Self Titled

Suicidal Tendencies - Self Titled

Flogging Molly - Swagger, Drunken Lullabies

Dropkick Murphys - Sing Loud, Sing Proud

Catch22 / Streetlight Manifesto - Keasbey Nights (Ska Punk)

Less Than Jake - Hello Rockview, Anthem (Ska Punk)

Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose (Folk Punk)

this list is not comprehensive but covers the vast majority of my most frequently played albums. feel free to add any in the tags i may have missed

[stiwfssr]

[id-element0]

After having a day of leisure, enjoying the young adulthood, Bismarck decides to check this shady building out. He realises it also has some shady people in it.

He quickly impresses everyone and is invited to hang around a few times a week for a small fee. He doesn't have any need for money but he has the thirst for a life of crime. He gets so excited he lights a cig outside dreaming of his future crimes.

And the history repeats itself in a weird way: A generation earlier, Satori's father Danzig would mock her ambitions stating his desires for her to become a criminal mastermind; which caused verbal altercations between father and daughter. And now Satori thinks Bismarck is choosing the wrong path for himself.

Satori: All those brain cells to be wasted on the thug life!

Bismarck: HAH, big words from a bully! Grandpa Danzig would be proud of me. Stay out of my business!

Satori: Moron...

Aah, it's true that Bismarck is what Danzig wanted as an heir. Alas, he lurks in the cemetery being lectured about Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Bismarck has another childhood dream that leaves me conflicted: See Satori's Ghost. 😱 👻

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[blowflyfag]

WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION MAGAZINE : FEBRUARY 1999

THE MINISTRY OF DARKNESS

What is the Undertaker’s demonic vision?

By Bill Banks

As the new millennium nears, some people are convinced that the “end” is imminent. The proof, according to them, is everywhere in today’s culture–the music, television and movies. Nostradamus (1503-66) prophesied that by the year 2000, the decay of humanity would lead to Hell on Earth and the ultimate Apocalypse. Many people today are convinced of what he portended. “Prepare,” they say, “for Judgement Day is upon us.”

One can only imagine what Nostradamus would have thought of the World Wrestling Federation and the Undertaker in particular. The Phenom’s threat that the “Ministry of Darkness” would blanket the Federation in destruction has sent chills through a number of wrestling insiders. Is this the Undertaker and Paul Bearer’s macabre way of welcoming the Apocalypse? If so, have we yet to see the true evil within the demonic superstar?

Since his dawn in the Federation, the Phenom has been a sort of antichrist. Like the music of bands such as Type O Negative and Danzig, he has claimed his inspiration from the Dark Side, but he’s only touched on what that world is actually about. While fans have cheered the Undertaker for much of his career, some have forgotten what he stands for–everything that is pure evil. 

In some instances, his powers were unexplainable. At the 1994 Royal Rumble, Yokozuna and a host of Federation Superstars locked him inside an air-tight coffin. As the seemingly lifeless tomb was hauled out of the arena, millions saw the Undertaker–or his spirit–levitate into the rafters. In October 1996, he was buried six feet under a makeshift grave site. To this day, no one can explain how lightning struck the tombstone inside the enclosed arena. And in one of the most horrific scenes in Federation history, Kane trapped the Phenom inside his casket at the 1998 Royal Rumble and charred it with a raging inferno. After extinguishing the flames, Federation officials opened the casket to find that the superstar had vanished.

Levitation, resurrection, surviving an inferno–each display of his unholy ability grows more hellish and unexplainable than the one before. What is feeding this core of evil inside him? Is it society’s deterioration or has the Undertaker finally succumbed to the ultimate evil–the Devil himself?

In demonology, the study of Satanism, experts believe that opening oneself to the Dark Side might invite possession by demons, known as incubi or succubi. It’s called demonic oppression or demonic invasion. According to occultists, evil spirits take over the body and mind and there is no guarantee of ever ridding them. Those who claim to have been possessed in this manner speak of “something inside them that takes over,” and often they believe they are Satan’s minions. Serial killers such as “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz and “The Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez claimed when they were apprehended to have been inspired by the devil. Seemingly harmless games and pranks involving chants and Ouija boards can even turn into something far more sinister. Other hardcore demonologists even believe that simply reading about the subject opens the door to the possibility of possession!

Perhaps the Undertaker has been living his lifestyle for so long that an unspoken evil is dwelling inside him. Demonologists also say that our state of mind–hatred in particular–can lead to possession. Who has been more embittered about being cheated out of the Federation Championship than the Phenom? Following years of festering ill will and unexplained occurrences might he have invited demonic incubi to grow inside of him? If so, are these forces about to manifest themselves in the Ministry of Darkness–led by a superstar who believes he’s a follower of the Devil himself? 

Another aspect of Satanism is its variety of followers. Witchcraft, superstition, magic, and occultism are all aspects of it. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of demonic religions are based on these branches, with some of their followers pledging allegiance to the Devil.  What if the Ministry of Darkness is the coming of the Undertaker’s apocalyptic religion? There are more dark forces in the World Wrestling Federation today then ever before. Would they open themselves up to possession by the Phenom? Or have they already? Is the Undertaker assembling an army to help carry out his apocalyptic desires?If he believes he is the ultimate demonic leader, would these superstars follow as his devoted parishioners?

Like Nostradamus, has the Undertaker seen the coming of the “end”? Is he involved in a dark and demonic world that we cannot even begin to comprehend? Although the prophet’s predictions are open to interpretation, the coming of the Ministry of Darkness is undeniable. With such power, perhaps the Man from the Dark Side is determined to make Nostradamus’ vision of Hell on Earth a hideous reality.

[mightyflamethrower]

So much for the idea that if women were in charge the world would be a much kinder and less violent place.

Peruse campus literature. Watch clips from university protests. Scan interviews with pro-Hamas protestors. Read the chalk propaganda sketched on campus sidewalks. Talk to raging students in the free speech area. And the one common denominator— besides their arrogance—is their abject ignorance. Take their following tired talking points:

“Refugees” 

We are told that the Palestinians after more than 75 years of residence in the West Bank and Gaza are “refugees.” If that definition were currently true, then, are the 900,000 Jews who were forcibly exiled from Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia after the 1947, 1956, 1967 wars still “refugees?”

Most fled to Israel. Do they now live in “refugee” camps administrated by the UN? Are they protesting to recover their confiscated homes and wealth in Damascus, Cairo, or Baghdad? Do Jews on Western television dangle their keys to lost homes in Damascus a half-century after they were expelled?

How about the 150,000-200,000 Greek Cypriots who in 1974 were brutally driven out of their ancient homes in Northern Cyprus? Are they today living in “refugee” camps in southern Cyprus? Are Cypriot terrorists blowing themselves up in “occupied” Nicosia to recover what was stolen from them by Turkey?

Turkish president Recep Erdogan lectures the world on Palestinian “refugees,” but does he mention Turkey’s role in the brutal expulsion of 40 percent of the residents of Cyprus?

Are there campus groups organizing against Turkey on behalf of the displaced Cypriots? After being slaughtered and expelled, are the Cypriots a cause celebre in academia? Do the “refugee” cities of southern Cyprus resemble Jenin or Jericho?

For that matter, how about the 12 million German civilians who between 1945-50 were expelled, and mostly walked back from, East Prussia and parts of Eastern Europe, some with Prussian roots going back a millennium and more. Perhaps 1 million died during the expulsions.

Are any current survivors still “refugees?” If so, are they organizing for war to get back “occupied”  “Danzig” and “Königsberg” for Germany? So why does the world damn Israel and romanticize the Palestinians in a way it does not with any other “refugee” group?

“Apartheid”

Israel is said to practice “apartheid,” although since 2005-06 Gaza has been autonomous. Mahmoud Abbas runs in his fashion the West Bank. Like the Hamas clique, he held elections one time in 2005, and then after his election, of course, cancelled any free election in the fashion of the one election, one time Middle East. Who forced him to do that? Zionists? Americans?

At any time, Gaza could have taken its vast wealth in annual foreign aid and become completely independent in fuel, food, and energy, without need of any such help form the “Zionist entity.”

Gaza could have capitalized on its strategic location, the world’s eagerness to help, and the natural beauty of its Mediterranean beaches. Instead, it squandered its income on a labyrinth of terrorist tunnels and rockets. Today, it snidely snickers at any mention of following the Singapore model of prosperity–a former colonial city whose World War II death count vastly surpassed that of the various wars over Gaza.

Are the Israeli Arabs—21 percent of the Israeli population—living under apartheid?

If so, it is a funny sort of oppression when they vote, hold office, form parties, and enjoy more freedom and prosperity than almost anywhere else in the Middle East under Arab autocracies. Are those in sympathy with Hamas fleeing from Israel into Gaza or the West Bank or other Arab countries to live with kindred Muslims under an autocratic and theocratic dictatorship, or do they prefer to stay in the “Zionist entity” under “apartheid?”

Where then is real apartheid?

The Uyghurs in China, fellow Muslims to Middle Easterners, who are ignored by Israel’s Islamic enemies, but who reside in China’s segregated work camps to the silence of the usually loud UN, EU, and Muslim world?

How about the Muslim Kurds? Are they second- or third-class citizens in Muslim Turkey? And how about the tens of thousands of foreign workers from India, Pakistan, and other Asian countries who labor under the kafala system in the Arab Muslim Gulf countries, and are subject to apartheid protocols that allow them no free will about how they live, travel, or the conditions of their labor?

Are campuses erupting to champion the Uyghurs, the Kurds, or the subjugated workers of the Gulf?

“Disproportionate”

Israel is now damned as “disproportionally” bombing Gaza. The campus subtext is that because Gaza’s 7,000-8,000 rockets launched at Israeli civilians have not killed enough Jews, then Israel should not retaliate for October 7 by bombing Hamas targets–shielded by impressed civilians— because it is too effective.

Would a “proportionate” response be counting up all the Israelis murdered, categorizing the horrific manner of their deaths, and then sending Israeli commandoes into Gaza during a “pause” in the fighting to murder an equal number of Gazans in the same satanic fashion?

Does the U.S. lecture Ukraine not to use to the full extent its lethal U.S. imported weaponry since the result is often simply too deadly? After all, perhaps twice as many Russians have been killed, wounded, or are missing than Ukrainian casualties. Should Ukraine have been more “proportionate?” Has President Biden ordered President Zelensky to offer the Russian aggressors a “pause” in the fighting to end the “cycle of violence?”

Or did U.S.-supplied artillery, anti-armor weapons, drones, and missiles “disproportionally” kill too many Russians? Or does the U.S. assume that since Russia attacked Ukraine at a time of peace, it deserves such a “disproportionate” response that alone will lose it the war?

For that matter, the U.S. certainly disproportionately paid back Japan for Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese brutal take-over of the Pacific, much of Asia, and China—and the barbarous way the Japanese military slaughtered millions of civilians, executed prisoners, and mass raped women. Should the U.S. have simply done a one-off retaliatory attack on the imperial fleet at Yokohama, declared a “cease-fire,” and thus ended the “cycle of violence?”

Civilian casualties

Campus activists scream that Israel has slaughtered ���civilians” and is careless about “collateral damage.” They equate retaliating against mass murderers who use civilians to shield them from injury, while warning any Gazans in the region of the targeted response to leave, as the moral equivalent of deliberately butchering civilians in a surprise attack.

So did protestors mass in the second term of Barrack Obama when he focused on Predator drone missions inside Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen to go after Islamic terrorists who deliberately target civilians?

At the time, the hard-left New York Times found the ensuing “collateral damage” in civilian deaths merely “troubling.” No matter—Obama persisted, insisting as he put it, “Let’s kill the people who are trying to kill us.” Note Obama did not expressly say the terrorists in Pakistan or Yemen were killing Americans, but “trying” to kill Americans. For him, that was, quite properly, enough reason “to kill” the potential assassins of Americans.

What would the Harvard President today say of Benjamin Netanyahu saying just that about Hamas?

We have no idea how many women, children, and elderly were in the general vicinity of a targeted terrorist in Pakistan or Yemen when an American drone missile struck. Then CIA Director John Brennan later admitted that he had lied under oath (with zero repercussions), when he testified to Congress that there was no collateral damage in drone targeted assassinations.

Obama was proud of his preemptive assassination program. Indeed, in lighthearted fashion he joked at the White House Correspondence Dinner about his preference for lethal drone missions, when he “warned” celebrities not to date his daughters: “But boys, don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you, ‘predator drones.’ You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking.”

Did the campuses erupt and scream “Not in my name” when their president laughed about his assassination program? After all, Obama had also admitted, “There is no doubt that civilians were killed who shouldn’t have been.” Did he then stop the targeted killings due to collateral damage—as critics now demand a cease fire from Israel?

“Genocide”

Genocide is now the most popular charge in the general damnation of Israel, a false smear aimed at calling off the Israeli response to Hamas, burrowed beneath civilians in Gaza City.

But how strange a charge! Pro-Hamas demonstrators the world over chant “From the River to the Sea,” unambiguously calling for the utter destruction of Israel and its 9 million population. Are the Hamas supporters then “genocidal?”

Is genocide the aim of Hamas that launched over 7,000 rockets into Israeli cities without warning? What is the purpose of the purportedly 120,000 rockets in the hands of Hezbollah if not to target Israeli noncombatants? Is all that a genocidal impulse?

Do Hamas and Hezbollah drop leaflets to civilians, as does Israel, to flee the area of a planned missile attack—or is that against their respective charters?

Hamas leaders in Qatar and Beirut continue to give interviews bragging about their October 7 surprise mass murdering of civilians. They even promise more such missions that likewise will be aimed at beheading, torturing, executing, incinerating, and desecrating the bodies of hundreds of Jewish civilians, perhaps again in the early morning during a holiday and a time of peace.

Is that planned continuation of mass killing genocidal? Does the amoral UN recall any other mass murdering spree when the killers beheaded infants, cooked them in ovens, and raped the dead?

Perhaps students at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and Stanford will protest the real genocide in Darfur where some half-million black African Sudanese have been slaughtered by mostly Muslim Arab Sudanese. Did the Cornell professor who claimed he was “exhilarated” on news of beheaded Jewish babies protest the slaughter of the Sudanese? Did the current campus protestors ever assemble to scream about the Islamists who slaughtered the indigenous Africans of Sudan?

Are professors at Stanford organizing to refuse all grants and donations that originate from communist China? Remember, the Chinese communist Party has never apologized for the party’s genocidal murder of some 60-80 millions of its own during the Maoist Cultural Revolution, much less its systematic efforts to eliminate the Uyghur Muslim population?

These examples could easily be expanded. But they suffice to remind us that the Middle-East and Western leftist attacks on Israel for responding to the October 7 mass murdering are neither based on any consistent moral logic nor similarly extended to other nations who really do practice apartheid, genocide, and kill without much worry about collateral damage.

So why does the world apply a special standard to Israel?

To the leftist and Islamist, Israel is guilty of being: 1) Too Jewish; 2) Too prosperous, secure, and free; 3) Sufficiently Western to meet the boilerplate smears of colonialist, imperialist, and blah, blah, blah.

[luis-del-bosque]

Luis Fernando Morales Del Bosque, 45, has called Coronado home for all their life. As a CEO of the Empyrean Publishing, their world is steeped in a smell of strong coffee and even stronger cigarettes, a search of recognition & self-acceptance, and big dreams & even bigger plans. Often found scribbling something in his very secretive notebook, they move through life with Mother by Danzig in their ear.

I.

You’ve always been ambitious — and always wore a mask. Born into a family of junkyard salvagers, you’re familiar with the flavour of acid on your tongue — you can smell and taste it when you only drink water for days trying to fill your empty stomach up. You’ve survived the burning sensation countless times. You think it’s the reason you have such vivid dreams. Your mother calls them hallucinations of power & mightiness — you don’t know that yet, but she’s wrong. It’s not a delusion — your struggle will indeed make you resilient; ruthless, even.

As a child you were devious. You knew there would be no other way to rise from the place you were born into: you have to lie, to fawn, to hide your past & your true self. Life’s not fair, you’ve heard so many times, and you were forced to believe it — and perhaps they weren’t wrong. Would these dirty hands of yours be capable of holding any sort of authority?

II.

You become someone who you were once rebelling against — sometimes you forget, but there was a time when you were trying to become a part of the underground resistance; a passionate screw in the machine that fought against injustice. 

It didn’t last long. You find yourself in a pair of military boots. Innocence and naïveté washed away in the baptism of fire. The uniform is what seemed appealing to her, too, or at least that’s what you think. After all, you were serving this country. And someone of her name would appreciate it. 

Now you can’t remember who was the first to approach — but it couldn’t have been you. Because you knew who she was, and you knew your place. It wasn’t right beside her. 

But that’s where you end up. For a short while, you try to hide your true self. But they know everything, it doesn’t take long for her family to find out where you’re actually from. They don’t like it, of course. But they’re sure this — whatever it was that was happening — wouldn’t last long.

III.

And this was their first mistake. A positive pregnancy test equals a major scandal for the Del Bosque family — only because of the father. You.  They’re very efficient, they know what to do and what actions have to be taken for everything to be settled.

First, you have to get married and take the Del Bosque name. Second, leave the military and enroll into university — all of the expenses will be paid. Third, you’ll get a job. And you don’t get to choose it. You’re someone else now — someone new. Someone who doesn’t have a family, and came from another country. Someone who has great education, someone who’s rich, successful, desired by all. 

When you remember — on occasion — you send your parents some money. For the grief they’ve been dealing with after the loss of their only son.

IV.

When you were dreaming of success, was this what you imagined? Losing yourself, being hated by the family you’re a part of, never having home to return to? Was this what you wanted? How long does it take until you forget your own name? When do you crack — or do you become someone else entirely?

You’re happy with your job, though. You’re content with what you’ve learned, and what you get to meet and do. But is this enough? 

There are thoughts that keep you up at night. 

You’re an imposter. You’re nothing. Nobody needs you. And you still don’t have authority. But your wife, the sister of Rafael, might be the key to change all of it — perhaps you’re ready to use it now. 

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In short: Grew up very poor, and thus joined the military because he really didn’t have many options. This poetic soul is struggling. One day, randomly runs into Rafael Del Bosque’s younger sister and… they fall in love? Crazy. The Del Bosque family hates it because wtf do you mean she’s going out with this peasant, but they’re like ok whatever, we’re keeping it under wraps and they can hang out for a bit until they inevitably get tired of each other. Well, yikers. She gets pregnant. Now they hate him even more, because WDYM THIS POOR ASS STUPID UNEDUCATED MF IS GONNA A FATHER OF HER CHILD????? She keeps the child though, and they’re forced to get married. He has to take the Del Bosque last name, hide his real identity, start studying at university, pretend to be of a higher class than he actually is. Isn’t really allowed to see his family often because of this. He gets a degree in English literature, immediately starts working at Empyrean Publishing (once again, doesn’t have that much choice). During the years, resentment starts to grow. Like, sure, he got a lot out of it, but none of the choices could be made by him, it was all already decided, he can’t see his own family, and he’s still considered to be less than other Del Bosque clan members. Relationship with his wife is probably not that good anymore too, but could be plotted once/if someone takes up the role.  Right now, he’s trying to persuade his wife to start thinking about how to take Rafael’s place. He just wants more power, what can I say?