#Trump biography highlights

[newsepick]

From Real Estate to the White House: The Journey of Donald Trump Read ahead to know the journey of Donald Trump, from real estate mogul to U.S. president- a testament to his bold ambition, and how he has been instrumental in reshaping American politics. Read More :

https://newsepick.com/flash-cards/from-real-estate-to-the-white-house-the-journey-of-donald-trump

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

DNC convention

* * * *

“Kamala Harris, for the people.”

August 23, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Another night of remarkable moments that promise a shift in American politics and society! Framed by the theme of freedom, Democrats showcased an America free of gun violence, free of discrimination, free of government control of reproductive rights, free of voter suppression, and free from want, insecurity, and fear. It was a beautiful, poignant, painful, and uplifting night.

As before, I will comment only on highlights and rely on readers of this newsletter to add commentary. (The Comment section will be open to all on Friday, August 23. Please be respectful.) Again, my notes are real time transcriptions; please refer to an official transcript if you want to quote the speech.

Kamala rose to the occasion.

On a remarkable night, the only place to begin is with the incredible acceptance speech by Kamala Harris.

Kamala Harris rose to the moment—a moment freighted with significance like few others in our nation's history. She delivered an oration worthy of the moment. Many doubted that Kamala Harris could deliver a “major” speech in which she appeared “presidential” and worthy of the title “Commander in Chief.” She quelled those doubts and more. She was presidential. She was commanding. She was fierce. She was charismatic. She was hopeful. She was human.

The place to begin is with Kamala’s closing charge to the American people:

We must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth—the privilege and pride of being an American.

Kamala won the night when she walked up to the lectern with a confident step and broad smile. That entrance spoke volumes. It was telling that she had to cut short the prolonged ovation by saying, “We have to get down to business.”

Introducing herself to the American people.

An important function of every acceptance speech is to introduce and humanize the nominee. Kamala did that with her first words, which were to her husband: “Doug, I love you so very much.” How human, relatable, and normal.

She had the grace to thank Joe and Jill Biden at the outset, saying that she valued “the path we have traveled together. Your record is extraordinary as history will show. We love you and Jill.”

Kamala described her family story—in all its complications. She mentioned her rarely mentioned father and addressed the family trauma of divorce. She quickly pivoted to the positive aspects of being raised by a strong, single mother. The one anecdote she told involving her father ended with her father saying, “Run, Kamala, run! Don’t be afraid.”

She explained her decision to become a lawyer and prosecutor by relating the story of a classmate who was being sexually abused by her father (step-father?). She invited the classmate into her home to protect her from further abuse. She capped this portion of her speech with several memorable phrases:

Everyone has a right to safety and to dignity, and to justice. A harm any one of us is a harm against all of us.

Finally, she told the American people that she had only one client throughout her career: The people.

She then delivered the line that is the title to this newsletter. She recounted that whenever she appeared in court as a prosecutor, she introduced herself as follows:

 “Kamala Harris, for the people.”

That phrase needs to be on a bumper sticker and tee-shirts.

Pivoting to Trump.

Having established her biography and bona fides as a representative of the people, Kamala pivoted to Trump. She cut to the chase:

Donald Trump is an unserious man, but the consequences of putting Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. He caused calamity while in office, but the gravity of what happened since the last election was even worse.

He incited an insurrection on J6. He was found guilty of fraud by jury. He was found liable for sexual abuse

Kamala then listed the ominous threats of reelecting Trump:

Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists. His explicit intent to jail journalists or anyone he sees as his enemy. Consider his explicit intent to deploy the military against own citizens Consider how the Supreme Court’s immunity decision will unleash Trump. Imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. He would use power not to improve your life, but to serve the only client he has ever had—himself.

Policy positions.

In a short but effective section of the speech, Kamala characterized Trump's policies by reference to Project 2025.

Kamala framed her policies through the lens of the middle class, saying,

I came from the middle class. We lived within our means, but we did not want. My goal is to build the middle class.

In an effective summary of her policies, she described them as “creating an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and succeed.”

Kamala highlighted the need to provide small business owners, creators, and founders with access to capital.

She promised to protect Social Security and Medicare “while Trump fights for his billionaire friends with a tax cut that will add $5 trillion the deficit.”

On taxes, she noted that Trump will impose a national sales tax (through tariffs) that will impose $4,000 on every family in America. In contrast, Kamala promised to provide tax cuts that will benefit 100 million Americans.

Reproductive liberty, abortion, and pregnancy healthcare

Kamala tied reproductive liberty to prosperity, saying

Americans cannot be prosperous unless they are able to make decisions about their lives, especially about matters of heart and home. Trump picked members of the Supreme court to take away reproductive freedom and is proud of it. He said, “I did and I am proud to have done it.”

In a surprise to the media and delegates, Kamala said that Republicans would appoint a national coordinator of anti-abortion measures (those aren’t the right words, but you get it), and said,

They are out of their minds!  Why don’t they trust women? We trust women. When Congress passes a bill to protect reproductive freedom, as president, I will proudly sign it into law.

Border security and foreign policy

On the border, she laid the blame for the border crisis at Trump's feet, saying,

There was bipartisan border bill endorsed by Border Patrol. Trump ordered allies to kill the deal. I refuse to play politics with our security; I will bring back the bipartisan bill and will sign it into law.

On international security, she said,

I will always ensure that America always has the strongest most lethal fighting force in the world and will care for their troops and will always honor their sacrifice. Trump on the other hand, threatened to abandon NATO. Trump said Russia could “do whatever the hell they want.” I met with Zelensky and warned him that Russia was going to attack. I helped mobilize a global response to stand against Putin. I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.

Kamala punctuated the international relations portion of the speech by saying that Kim Jong un and Vladimir Putin “are rooting for Trump” because he “is one of them.”

The war in Gaza

On Gaza, Kamala Harris said:

President Biden and I are working around the clock. Now is the time to get deals done. I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and ensure that it has the ability to defend itself. [Condemnation of Hamas by name.] At same time what has happened in Gaza is devastating. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war so that the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom and self-determination.

Closing remarks

In a powerful closing, Kamala left the American people with these thoughts:

We have so much more in common than what separates us. None of us has to fail for all of us to succeed. We must be worthy of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth—the privilege and pride of being an American.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[mariacallous]

The Italian PM is one of only a few big names set to appear at this year’s Budapest Demographic Summit, suggesting the Hungarian prime minister’s drawing power is on the wane.

Giorgia Meloni is saving Victor Orban’s pet project this year. The Italian prime minister will be the star guest at the fifth Budapest Demographic Summit, a biennial gathering of conservative to far-right figures that begins in the Hungarian capital on Thursday.

The decision to attend the two-day event by Meloni, whose election victory last September was greeted ecstatically by Prime Minister Orban, is all the sweeter for the nationalist-populist government in Budapest, as its hopes of having a new close ally in the EU have so far been dashed.

“Meloni’s visit is highly important for Prime Minister Orban, who has become increasingly isolated in the EU since the war in Ukraine, and needs to prove to his electorate that he still has some heavyweights on his side in Europe,” Zsuzsa Szelenyi, foreign policy expert and program director of the CEU Democracy Institute, tells BIRN.

Yet it is not only Orban who might gain from the visit. “Meloni has to perform a careful balancing act. She is pursuing a more pro-EU agenda than expected, but part of her electorate cherishes Orban,” Szelenyi, the author of Tainted Democracy, a book about the global rise of populist autocracy, explains. “She has to keep her party base happy.”

Szelenyi also believes that despite differing positions on Russia, Orban and Meloni – who will also hold bilateral talks – can find common ground on EU policies, such as rule-of-law issues, which the government could then sell to the Hungarian public as a big victory and preserve Orban’s image as an influential politician within the EU.

Guest list

Judging from the roster of speakers at this year’s Demographic Summit, Orban’s drawing power certainly looks to be on the wane.

From a political perspective, the guest list is lower profile than in previous years for the simple reason that several of Orban’s Central European friends (Andrej Babis and Janez Jansa) have been voted out of office since the last conference in 2021.

Besides Hungarian President Katalin Novak – the driving force behind the summit – and Orban, the political panel will include the Hungarian prime minister’s new best friend, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, pro-Russian Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Italy’s Meloni and, from further afield, Philip Isdor Mpango, the vice-president of Tanzania. One could argue he represents the world outside of Europe, as former US vice-president Mike Pence or Australian prime minister Tony Abbott did in previous summits, but perhaps with a bit less heft.

The overall guest list is written proof of Hungary’s diplomatic shift eastwards. Ministers from Kazakhstan, Turkey, Qatar, Morocco and Bahrain will speak about protecting family values and how best to support families, while a keynote speech will be delivered by the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament, Sahiba Gafarova.

Gafarova’s biography seems a little out of line with the Hungarian government’s general illiberal narrative: she is a graduate of women’s and gender studies in the US (gender studies are virtually banned in Hungary) and has also worked as a Council of Europe rapporteur on violence against women, refugees and migrants.

The intellectual highlights will be provided by the Canadian clinical psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, a controversial but highly influential public speaker and frequent guest of Orban. He once referred to Orban as a wannabe dictator, though later told the Hungarian pro-government weekly Mandiner that, “it’s always good to have something to constantly scare people with, to demonise someone. Europe also needs a bogeyman like Donald Trump, and that is the role that Viktor Orban has been appointed to play.” Peterson has also described Orban’s pro-family policies (see box below) as “impressive”.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, who has done most of his research on inequality, social mobility and early childhood education, will probably offer a more scholarly approach to family policy.

Of course, no demographic conference in Hungary could take place without the participation of Christian theologians and church leaders.

Syrian Orthodox Church leader Efrem Ignac, who has publicly praised Orban for resisting Western political correctness and urged the government to prevent the EU from putting Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill on the sanctions list, will share his thoughts on how the church can protect families in the midst of wars. Ironically, Ignac recently moved into the restored villa of former Hungarian Communist leader Janos Kadar, which now houses the secretariat for persecuted Christians in Budapest.

Christiaan Alting von Geusau, founder and president of the fundamentalist, anti-abortion, anti-birth control, anti-divorce International Catholic Legislators’ Network (ICLN), will also take the floor. The ICLN calls contraception “intrinsically evil” and abortion a “crime against humanity”, while donating sperm and artificial insemination are “morally unacceptable”.

The Americans

Despite Orban’s growing popularity in US conservative circles, no senior US Republican politician is attending this year’s summit, with the exception of Valerie Huber, president and CEO of the Institute of Women’s Health.

Huber was former president Donald Trump’s special representative for global women’s health, and she drafted the anti-abortion Geneva Consensus Declaration, signed by mostly illiberal, autocratic regimes and whose secretariat is housed in Hungary. The Biden administration removed the US from the list shortly after being elected.

Panellists will also include Sharon Slater, co-founder of the fundamentalist Christian lobby group Family Watch International, which opposes abortion, sex education and birth control, and supports the criminalisation of homosexuality in Africa and the US.

Last but not least, the benefits of family life will be presented by Pat Fagan, a former deputy assistant secretary under former president George H. W. Bush and currently the director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, which describes marriage and weekly religious worship as “sources of the greatest social outcomes”, and urges young people to come to the altar as virgins.

The official budget of the conference is estimated at 3.8 billion forints (around 10 million euros), which will paid for out of taxpayer money, even as the government is being forced to scrap some of its flagship family support schemes due to budgetary problems.

Family Policy

Hungary’s demographic summits were originally intended to publicise Orban’s “Family Policy”, which comprises generous financial incentives for mostly middle- and upper-income families, such as full tax exemption for mothers with four children or cheap housing loans for young couples willing to have several children.

The results of this policy have been decidedly mixed, though. Hungary’s female fertility rate did indeed rise from 1.2 to 1.59 (children per woman) between 2010 and 2021, but fell back to 1.51 in 2022. That means Hungary has moved from the bottom of the EU to slightly above the average.

However, most demographic experts consider it unrealistic to expect that Hungary can reach a fertility rate of 2.1, the rate needed to keep the population stable. According to current calculations, Hungary’s population will shrink from 9.7 million today to 8.8 million in 2050.

The picture becomes bleaker upon learning that the government has been forced to scrap some of the incentives for urban families in 2023 due to financial constraints, in order to focus mainly on its rural constituencies. Furthermore, in 2021, Hungary nationalised all private IVF clinics, officially to boost fertility but some suspect ulterior motives about centralising the lucrative business. Although treatment in general has become cheaper, many women complain of long waiting lists and have decided to go abroad for treatment.

While many experts note how Orban has managed to sell his family policies as a huge success abroad, most of his fans outside the country have little knowledge of the chronically underfunded education and health systems that are essential for creating a truly family-friendly country.

[uspresidentsclub01]

Gift Ideas for History Buffs: Top Picks from the White House Gift Shop

Historical enthusiasts give more privilege to well-considered presents that capture their love of the past, particularly when they are connected to famous people and noteworthy occasions. The White House Gift Shop has a wide collection of USA-themed products ideal for history enthusiasts. From enduring relics to rare rarities, these presents merge sentimentality with historical importance, rendering them cherished memories.

Commemorative Collectibles for Every Occasion

If you're intrigued by presidential history, a gift that embodies the spirit of American leadership would be perfect. A great choice is the Donald Trump Signature Pen, a stylish writing tool that captures the essence of the 45th president's legacy. This pen is just right for collectors or professionals! It’s not only a handy accessory but also a great way to spark conversations, showcasing the delightful charm of presidential history.

The White House Gift Shop also offers a delightful variety of commemorative coins, plates, and statues that celebrate iconic American leaders. Every piece is made with care, highlighting important moments in the nation's journey. These collectibles are both meaningful and have a timeless charm.

Apparel with a Patriotic Touch

Patriotic apparel allows history buffs to wear their passion proudly. The Presidential Trump T-Shirt is an excellent choice, blending comfort with symbolism. Featuring a stylish design inspired by Donald Trump’s presidency, this shirt resonates with individuals who admire his leadership and contributions. Whether worn casually or displayed as part of a collection, this apparel piece adds a personal touch to any history enthusiast's wardrobe.

Other clothing options, such as jackets and caps adorned with presidential seals or quotes, are also available. These items make thoughtful gifts, reflecting the recipient's interest in the rich tapestry of American history.

Books and Stationery for the Avid Reader

Books are always a great gift for history buffs, and the White House Gift Shop offers a curated selection of titles spanning topics such as presidential biographies, landmark policies, and American heritage. Pair these with elegant stationery sets or journals to create a complete package. Including a Donald Trump Signature Pen alongside these gifts can elevate the experience, turning everyday writing into an inspiring activity.

Decorative Items for the Home or Office

Decorative items inspired by the White House and its past occupants make perfect additions to any home or office. Options like framed artwork, historical maps, and replicas of famous speeches bring a sense of history to any space. A Presidential Trump T-Shirt displayed creatively can also serve as a conversation piece, sparking interest in historical discussions. Items like custom wall hangings or desk ornaments featuring presidential quotes can add both elegance and inspiration. These thoughtful accents help create a space that reflects a deep appreciation for America's rich history

Conclusion

Gifts that combine historical relevance with artistic skill may be found in abundance at the White House Gift Shop, making it a veritable treasure trove for history buffs. The store offers a wide range of products to suit different interests and preferences, including collectibles like the Donald Trump Signature Pen and wearables like the Presidential Trump T-Shirt.

For those seeking even more unique options, the US Presidents Club provides a curated selection of USA-themed gifts, memorabilia, and exclusive collectibles. Each product tells a story, celebrating the rich heritage of American leadership. Find the perfect gift that honors the past while inspiring the future.

[lavishangle]

From Broke to Billionaire: 10 Comeback Stories You Won’t Believe. Discover how ten billionaire legends—from Walt Disney to Oprah Winfrey—survived financial catastrophe and soared to greater heights, proving that failure can be life’s greatest teacher. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3o4B5eoAcewBjxvaeC5Rxg?sub_confirmation=1 Life can throw even the world’s wealthiest individuals into chaos. Billionaires who seemed invincible have encountered financial ruin, only to forge inspiring comebacks. Elon Musk nearly lost Tesla and SpaceX in 2008, borrowing money for rent before a game-changing NASA contract set his empire on course. Walt Disney’s first animation studio went bankrupt, yet he turned that defeat into the magical Disney brand known worldwide today. Others, like Donald Trump, negotiated billions in debt during the 1990s, rescuing his personal brand from collapse. George Foreman returned to the ring at age 38—long after retiring—to pay off crushing debts, eventually becoming both a boxing champion and a wildly successful entrepreneur. These stories highlight a common theme: perseverance can transform devastating losses into catalysts for growth. Whether it’s Henry Ford reimagining the auto industry, Steve Jobs revitalizing Apple, or Oprah Winfrey overcoming TV rejections to build a media empire, each individual showcases the power of grit, innovation, and relentless hope. It doesn’t matter how many times you stumble—what counts is learning from those setbacks and rising to the challenge once again. Their accounts not only inspire us but remind us that success seldom comes without a battle against adversity. 📂 For The Latest Stories on luxury travel, getaways goods, the rich, companies, Top 10’s, biographies, Lavish History, news, and more 📂 https://www.youtube.com/@Lavishangle 🎉 For business enquires contact us at full4sog (@) gmail dot com 💬 Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below. We love hearing from you! 😍 and hit that bell to stay updated on all new videos we release. #lavishgetaways #thelavishandaffluentangle #thelavish&affluentangle #tlaa #viralyoutubevideo #video #viralyoutubevideo #youtubeviralvideos #videosviral #videos #videosyoutube #videosbeta #viralvideos #viralvideo #viral #viralreels #youtubevideos #viralyoutubevideos #BillionaireCombacks #FinancialRuin #BusinessIcons #ElonMusk #WaltDisney #DonaldTrump #GeorgeForeman #HenryFord #SteveJobs #HowardSchultz #RichardBranson #SamWalton #OprahWinfrey #Resilience #Perseverance #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #FailureToSuccess #WealthLessons #AdversityStories #BusinessLegends #InspirationalStories #MotivationalContent #FinancialSetbacks #NeverGiveUp via The Lavish & Affluent Angle https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3o4B5eoAcewBjxvaeC5Rxg December 31, 2024 at 10:00PM

[bongreviewbd]

Johnny Kim: A Real-Life Superman Who Made History as a Navy SEAL, Harvard Doctor, and NASA Astronaut

The idea of Superman has captured the imagination of many around the world. But is there anyone in real life who can truly be called a Superman? As unbelievable as it sounds, there is someone among us who can rightfully bear that title: Johnny Kim. Johnny Kim is a remarkable individual who has proven himself as a Navy SEAL, a Harvard Medical School doctor, and a NASA astronaut, making him a truly unique figure.

Johnny Kim: The Start of an Unbelievable Journey

Johnny Kim was born into an immigrant family, facing struggles from the very beginning. His parents came to the United States as immigrants from South Korea, enduring numerous hardships to make a living. At the age of 18, Johnny lost his father, an event that made him mentally stronger and intensified his desire to face challenges.

Johnny Kim’s Journey as a Navy SEAL

From a young age, Johnny decided to overcome his shyness by becoming a Navy SEAL. This was a huge step and a major test of self-confidence. Through intense training and hard work, Johnny Kim earned his place as a Navy SEAL. His outstanding success in this role led him onto a new path, where he began an important chapter of his life as a Navy SEAL.

Academic Life at Harvard Medical School

After his success as a Navy SEAL, Johnny aspired to do even more and set his sights on serving humanity. He enrolled at Harvard Medical School to study medicine. At Harvard, he diligently pursued his studies in medical science, committing himself to saving lives as a doctor. By excelling in such a competitive environment as Harvard, Johnny Kim reached new heights in the medical field.

Making History as a NASA Astronaut

After gaining expertise in medicine from Harvard Medical School, an even greater opportunity came his way. At the age of 33, he was selected as a NASA astronaut, which marked yet another major success in his life. As a NASA astronaut, he has been chosen for a mission to the moon. He is undergoing rigorous training for space exploration, showcasing his skills and courage as an astronaut.

Personal Life and Johnny Kim’s Success

In his personal life, Johnny Kim is a devoted husband and father of three. Balancing his family life with his professional achievements makes him a complete individual. His exceptional qualities indeed make him worthy of being called a Superman. Along with being a family man, he serves his country, heals people as a doctor, and explores as an astronaut.

Johnny Kim: A Symbol of Inspiration and Dream Fulfillment

Johnny Kim’s extraordinary life journey inspires everyone. Breaking free from his limitations and social background, he has achieved incredible success. His biography teaches us that with self-confidence, hard work, and an unwavering willpower, anyone can fulfill their dreams.

From Johnny Kim’s life, we learn that challenges and obstacles are part of life, but that should never stop us from dreaming.

Watch More: Donald Trump's Victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: A Detailed Analysis of the Shift to the Right in American Politics

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[ejesgistnews]

Taylor Swift endorses Harris, Donald Trump Reacts.    In a surprising political move, pop superstar Taylor Swift has publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president, creating a stir both in political and celebrity circles. Swift, known for her influence across multiple platforms, announced her support for Harris and vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz on social media, urging her massive following of 283 million to make informed decisions ahead of the upcoming election.   Kamala Harris Biography, Age, Sister, Parents, Children and Facts About Her     This endorsement has sparked notable reactions, particularly from former President Donald Trump. Trump, a polarizing figure in American politics, expressed his disapproval of Swift's backing of the Democratic candidate. In response to the singer’s announcement, Trump labeled Swift as "a very liberal person," expressing his preference for Brittany Mahomes, wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who had seemingly shown support for Trump on Instagram.       Brittany Mahomes, who liked and later unliked a post supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign, came under the spotlight for her apparent political stance. Trump's post on X, formerly known as Twitter, publicly thanked Brittany for her backing, fueling speculation about her political leanings. The Instagram post she engaged with outlined conservative policies such as sealing the U.S. border and opposing funding for schools teaching critical race theory. Taylor Swift Biography, Net Worth, Age, Husband, Children, Wiki, Siblings Taylor Swift makes history with best album award in Grammys 2024     With Taylor Swift dating Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce and Brittany Mahomes often seen with Swift at Chiefs games, their newfound political divergence may lead to an awkward dynamic in their friendship. While it is unclear if this will impact their personal relationship, the juxtaposition of their public support for opposing political figures has become a talking point, especially with Trump weighing in on the matter.   Taylor Swift endorsement for Trump fake    Swift's endorsement of Harris follows her sharp criticism of Trump’s use of AI-generated images that falsely depicted her endorsing him. In her Instagram post, Swift took a jab at Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, over his controversial remarks on childless women, calling herself a "Childless Cat Lady" in a playful but pointed manner.   Trump reacts to Taylor Swift endorsement of Kamala Harris   Trump, in his reaction, said, “I was not a Taylor Swift fan... She always endorses a Democrat, and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace,” hinting at possible repercussions from her fanbase or commercial partnerships due to her political stance.   As the political tension grows, it remains to be seen whether the differing political endorsements will have any long-term impact on Swift’s influence or her relationships with figures like Brittany Mahomes. What is clear, however, is that the intersection of politics and celebrity culture continues to blur, as major stars like Swift and Mahomes are drawn into the political fray ahead of the 2024 election.   Taylor Swift endorsement of Kamala Harris episode highlights how America's heated political landscape can even affect friendships in the public eye, leaving fans to watch closely how it all unfolds.

[squishyproductions]

Highlights of Project 2025! Let's see why Trump has distanced himself from it and every goose stepping shit stain on the internet is trying to gaslight us all about it.

It mentions Trumps name 316 times. But, good news! 25 of those are in the biographies of the people who wrote it as they list him as a former employer. So, really, it's only paltry 291 times!

Of coarse, it includes a national abortion ban. The right loves to pretend that's not what they've been going for this whole time in hopes they can bull shit you into complacency until it's too late to stop them.

Abolishment of the FTC. Which sets and enforces banking standards. Without it banks can set their own rules and police themselves. I can't possibly see how that would lead to catastrophic failure.

Abolishment of the Federal Department of Education. Federal funding for Christian Schools to fill in. Yes this is a road map for a christo fascist theocracy.

Purging of the government of anyone not loyal to Trump. Extensive testing for any replacement workers to make sure they are Trump loyal and plans to under work and over pay them to ensure that ongoing loyalty.

Abolishment of Overtime Pay Laws! I love bringing this one up to the goose steppers as they go from "Stop talking about it" to just vanishing as they realize this will actually affect them in a massively negative way and they need to go mainline Fox News until the questions are purged from their brains.

Abolishing the FDA! Only libtards care about their food being safe.

A ban on pornography!

Abolishment of... Homeland Security?? But that's something the right created after 9/11. Citing that it's too expensive? I can't imagine what they're plotting with this.

[pazodetrasalba]

Amator (3)

Dear Caroline:

I can see how Miss Americana can be about Trump and a nightmarish turn in the American Dream. I find it much more difficult to tie it with (and eerily so, at that) with your biography.

I can see the world-domination part, in a good way: Alameda as a practical expression of Effective Altruism and Earning to Give, of trying to make the world a better place, perhaps even more highlighted against a background of cynicism and despair in US politics and society (were you in Hong Kong already when composing this piece?). I can also guess at the Heartbreak Prince, your attempts at a semi-illicit relationship and the hushed and censorious tones in the office(s), as well as the intense empathy of values and objectives with your paramour, as well as you desire to see yourself as a team of one with him.

At your heart, I get the impression that there lies and irrepressible ambition and a desire to prove yourself. That's your 'world optimization' in a positive sense, and probably what brought you around the EA community to begin with, the aspiration to become a secular saint of sorts. EAs can push this way too far, into a sort of self-sacrificial, quasi-sectarian attempt at transforming themselves into detached EV machines. I can at least partially understand that - when I was really young, I was deeply religious and imagine a life of selfless devotion and sacrifice for myself. Maybe the years have turned me more egoistic, skeptic and self-serving, which means I can't really see giving myself utterly to any cause, unless it be the search for truth and the desire of life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.

In utilitarianese, though, you always have a trump up your sleeve, and just as it is possible to argue against forced organ-harvesting because it breaks trust in the medical system (so negative overall utilons in the long term), a case can be made for not being too selfless, as this will generate burnout. Lewis's book -which a take with more than a pinch of salt- hints that you were the more epicurean of the FTX Altruists, and its picture of you with a glass of wine while attending a Future Fund meeting brought to my mind both a book you reviewed in your blog about wine drinking, and the very Brechtian belief that there is a space of resisting to any (fake) consciousness in our very material needs and impulses.

Quote:

Caroline appeared with a glass of wine, which here counted as an act of hedonism, and the meeting began.

Michael Lewis. “Going Infinite”.

[ds-wrds-of-wizdom]

Blog Exercise 2

Today I'm gonna provide three examples of the three types of sources, which are primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. I hope these examples help people distinguish them properly.

Primary Source 1: Satrapi, M. (2007). The complete Persepolis: Volumes 1 and 2. Pantheon.

This is a first-hand account of an Iranian woman's early life, divided between her time in Europe, where she is treated as in-human, and in post-revolutionary Iran, where the populace is oppressed by the ruling clergymen.

Primary Source 2: Hisham, M., & Crabapple, M. (2018). Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War. One World.

This is a memoir of a Syrian man's life under the Neo-Baathist regime of the Al-Assads before and during the Arab Spring.

Primary Source 3: Yew, L. K. (2012). From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, 1965-2000. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd.

This memoir, written by former Prime Minister and Founding Father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, details the highlights of his premiership and how his actions resulted in the economic development of Singapore.

Secondary Source 1: Rabinowitz, H., & Perez, E. (2023, September 29). IRS contractor charged with stealing Donald Trump’s tax returns, which were leaked to press. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/politics/irs-contractor-trump-taxes/index.html

This is a news article from CNN about an IRS contractor who was recently charged with stealing the tax return information of many of the most wealthiest people in the U.S., including former President Donald Trump.

Secondary Source 2: Rabasa, A., Benard, C., Schwartz, L. H., & Sickle, P. (2007). The Cold War Experience. In Building Moderate Muslim Networks (pp. 7–34). RAND Corporation. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg574srf.9

This is an article written by an author on the Cold War, while also interviewing some of the people involved during the period.

Secondary Source 3: Eastman, L. E. (1981). Who Lost China? Chiang Kai-shek Testifies. The China Quarterly, 88, 658–668. http://www.jstor.org/stable/653752

This is a research paper about the author's point of view of Chiang Kai-shek's account of the loss of the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party.

Tertiary Source 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Samoa#19th_century

This is an encyclopedia page from Wikipedia detailing the History of Samoa, from its settlement and subsequent colonization by European powers to it's independence from New Zealand.

Tertiary Source 2: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jimmy-Carter

This is a page from Encyclopedia Britannica on former President Jimmy Carter. Notice how not all the facts are included, they are mostly summarized in a short page.

Tertiary Source 3: https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/boris-yeltsin

This is a horrible example of a tertiary source and shouldn't be cited in a essay, but in short, this is an article from history.com about Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia.

[destinyc1020]

A biopic is suppose to celebrate and honor that person’s legacy and I don’t think doing a movie on a person who never wanted one about their life does that.

I don’t think a biopic is suppose to only honor the subject — it’s to highlight something important or interesting about their life or their impact. There are biopics about politicians, about musicians, about serial killers. A biopic shouldn’t whitewash their lives, if there’s messiness or the person did bad/questionable things — that’s important too!

I do believe creators have the responsibility to be generally truthful — or at least not exploitative or perpetuating harm. But we can’t just make a blanket moral rule individuals control what stories stories people tell. If someone someday wants to make a movie about the January 6th Capital Insurrection, but it’s important that it would be made regardless of how Trump or Mark Meadows etc feel about it.

Anyone can have personal lines about what they feel as morally wrong. Or what media they choose to consume. But having a blanket rule that we *shouldnt* do biopics/biographies just because the a (dead) person didn’t want it is far too simplistic.

I agree with that.... Biopics can be made about ANYBODY.... good or bad.

It just brings someone to life onscreen....A lot of times, they teach me too about history and what was going on in the era/the time period. And I get to learn smthg about someone that I more than likely never knew.

I love biopics. They're so interesting to me. I'm sure that's why most ppl like them also. 😊

[jariten]

July 2022 Roundup!

My reading experiences this past month were mostly familiar old faces, but the few fresh new encounters were all very interesting in their own way. So let’s take a look! Drawn & Quarterly manga releases have always been extremely interesting (not to mention their gradually growing selection of manhwa!) with their big focus on alternative manga courtesy of Ryan Holmberg. Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki is their newest release, a seemingly quiet story of a wife’s life in the home and all her anxieties and frustrations over the role she has been reduced to. The biography of Murasaki and her life and work featured at the end of the volume, as with all biographies included in these alt manga releases, is an extremely interesting read too. Among the other faces new to me is Box of Light by Seiko Erisawa! She’s had some buzz for a couple of years now but this english release finally gave me an opportunity to check her out. This anthology os stories centers on a convenience store in a purgatory space where souls who are currently at the crossroads between life and death end up. Along with the stories of the various people who find their way to the store we’re also treated to moments of the supernatural mundane. 

And once again I have some Japanese titles to highlight! Among the niches I’ve been slowly exploring is autobiographical LGBT Essay manga (a la The Bride Was a Boy and X-gender). Boku no Hajimete Gay Konkatsu by Hiroki Iida (Art by Shinta Harekawa) is a short retelling of Iida’s experiences using a gay matchmaking service in the hopes of finding a life partner. He mostly just shares his encounters through this service that simply didn’t work out for the most part due to simple incompatibility reasons, but despite the failures he won’t lose hope. What actually made this the most fun for me was the two chapters based on interviews with two couples who successfully found each other through the matchmaking service.  Mutsu A-ko isn’t a new face but these best of selections are winning me over even more. Were her stories revolutionary or deep? no. Do the stories blend together in my mind? all the time. Do I get so sucked into her little fantasy world where everything is idyllic and homey and love trumps all? YES!!! The A-ko brand is so strong and irresistible to me I just can’t help being obsessed. So far the 70′s Best Selection by Kawade is among my favorites compilations of her work, along with the Tenshi mo Yumemiru Rosokuya bunko

This month’s continuing releases include: My Love Mix-up volume 4 (and the concluding volume 9 in Japanese TvT), Daily Report About My Witch Senpai volume 2, Orochi volume 2 and Skip and Loafer volume 5! 

For August I’m aiming for more consistent posting so thanks for your patience!

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today in Christian History

Today is Friday, March 18th, the 77th day of 2022. There are 288 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

386: Death of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, notable for lectures and writings that influenced the development of Lent and Passion Week observances throughout the entire church.

978: In Saxon England, youthful Edward “the Martyr” is assassinated at the instigation of Queen Elfrida who wants to place his half-brother Ethelred on the throne. Although this is a political assassination, Edward’s piety and defense of the church has been such that the priests and common people consider him a martyr. Rome will include him in its roll of those who died for the faith.

1314: Philip the Fair of France burns thirty-nine Knights Templars at the stake in Paris on charges which appear trumped up. He wishes to seize their wealth.

1582: In Antwerp, Juan de Jáuregui attempts to assassinate William of Orange, the Protestant leader of the Netherlands.

1728: Death at Lewisham of George Stanhope, a moderate leader in church politics and one of the commissioners that oversaw the building of fifty churches in London after the great fire.

1813: Abdul Masih [a.k.a. Shekh Salih], a convert from Islam to Christianity, arrives in Agra, where he works wholeheartedly as an evangelist and educator. When he preaches out of doors, Muslims will crowd the rooftops to hear him.

1830: Death at Goruckpore of Seeta-Ram, who, despite ill health, and all that it cost him in social ostracism, had shared the gospel publicly and privately for about twelve years with his Hindu compatriots.

1968: Death in Pasadena, California, of Charles Edward Fuller, founder of Fuller Theological Seminary and well-known as the voice of the radio program The Old Fashioned Revival Hour.

1980: Muslim students at the University of Alexandria threaten Mr. Edmonds, a Christian student, demanding he denounce his faith or die. When he refuses, they beat him unconscious and leave him with a broken arm.

1983: Death of Catherine Marshall in Boynton Beach, Florida. She was a Christian writer of talent and influence, author of A Man Called Peter, the biography of her first husband, Peter Marshall.

[sciencespies]

The Top Ten Online Exhibitions of 2020

https://sciencespies.com/history/the-top-ten-online-exhibitions-of-2020/

The Top Ten Online Exhibitions of 2020

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM | Dec. 31, 2020, 10:48 a.m.

In recent years, curators and educators have increasingly started exploring the many possibilities offered by virtual exhibitions. Hundreds of institutions have made 3-D tours of their galleries available online through Google Arts & Culture and similar platforms, allowing visitors from around the world to virtually “wander” through the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico City, the Tokyo National Museum and other significant sites.

But when the Covid-19 pandemic forced museums to shutter for most of 2020, public interest in virtual art experiences skyrocketed like never before. Closed to the public and financially strained, many museums nevertheless managed to create thought-provoking alternatives to in-person viewing.

Digital offerings in the United States ranged from the Morgan Library & Museum’s interactive retrospective of Al Taylor’s drawings to the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) “Virtual Views” of Surrealist women. Abroad, exhibitions such as the Rijksmuseum’s interactive version of a Rembrandt masterpiece offered viewers a chance to literally “zoom in” on a single piece of art—and perhaps notice new details that would’ve otherwise gone unnoticed. In London, meanwhile, Tate Modern adapted its “Andy Warhol” show by creating a curator-led tour that takes users through the exhibition room by room.

The Smithsonian Institution also made impressive forays into the world of online exhibitions. A beautifully illustrated portal created by the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative examined how girls have shaped history, while a landmark show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum spotlighted Chicano activists’ pioneering printmaking. At the National Museum of Natural History, curators catered to science enthusiasts with narrated virtual tours of various exhibits and halls; at the National Air and Space Museum, aviation experts produced panoramic views of famed aircraft’s interiors. Other highlights included the National Museum of Asian Art’s virtual reality tour of six iconic monuments from across the Arab world, the Cooper Hewitt’s walkthrough of “Contemporary Muslim Fashions,” and the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s exploration of black soldiers’ experiences during World War I. (For a more complete list of offerings, visit the Smithsonian’s online exhibitions portal.)

To mark the end of an unprecedented year, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting some of the most innovative ways in which museums helped craft meaningful virtual encounters with history and art. From first ladies to women writers and Mexican muralists, these were ten of our favorite online exhibitions of 2020.

“Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States”

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.)

Click this image to view the online exhibition. Depicted clockwise from top left: Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson, Grace Coolidge, Nancy Reagan, Dolley Madison, Abigail Fillmore, Frances Cleveland and Sarah Polk.

(Illustration by Meilan Solly / Photographs via NPG)

Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery’s presidential wing have long called for an exhibition devoted to the U.S.’ first ladies. But as Alicia Ault points out for Smithsonian, these women haven’t always been recognized as important individuals in their own right—a fact reflected in the relative dearth of portraiture depicting them. The gallery itself only began commissioning official portraits of the first ladies in 2006.

“Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States” seeks to redress this imbalance by presenting 60 portraits—including photographs, drawings, silhouettes, paintings and sculptures—of American presidents’ wives. Though the physical exhibition is currently closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, would-be visitors can explore a virtual version featuring high-resolution images of first ladies from Martha Washington to Melania Trump, as well as brief biographies, podcasts and blog posts. The portraits are as “varied as the women themselves,” who all responded to the unique challenges and pressures of their office in different ways, writes Ault.

Inspiration for the exhibition’s title comes from Julia Gardiner, who was the first woman to marry a president in office. Born into a wealthy Long Island slaveholding family, Gardiner was just 24 years old when she wed John Tyler in 1844. As Gardiner prepared to take on the high-profile role, she wrote in a letter to her mother that she knew she would be scrutinized: “I very well know every eye is upon me, my dear mother, and I will behave accordingly.”

“Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle”

Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts)

One of black history’s preeminent visual storytellers, Jacob Lawrence employed Modernist forms and bright colors to narrate the American experience through the eyes of the country’s most marginalized citizens. This year, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, reunited one of Lawrence’s most groundbreaking series—Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56)—for the first time in 60 years.

In 30 hardboard panels, each measuring 12 by 16 inches, Lawrence traces American history from the Revolutionary War to 1817, covering such events as the Boston Tea Party and the nation’s bloody, prolonged campaigns against Native Americans, as Amy Crawford wrote for Smithsonian in June. Virtual visitors can stroll through the exhibition, aptly titled “Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle,” or zoom in on images of each panel. Entries are accompanied by related artworks and reflections from scholars.

When the show traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, it sparked an exciting reunion. A museum visitor recognized the panels’ distinct Modernist style and realized that her neighbors, a couple living on the Upper West Side, had a similar painting hanging in their living room. Curators determined that the panel, which depicts Shay’s Rebellion, was one of five missing works from the Struggle series. No photographs of the panel had survived, and it had been presumed lost for decades—but as curator Randall Griffey told the New York Times, it turned out to be “just across the park” from the museum.

“Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945”

Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City)

When the Mexican Revolution drew to a close in 1920 after ten years of armed struggle, the country was left profoundly changed. But among artists of the post-revolutionary period, a new cultural revolution was just beginning. Over the next several decades, artists like the famed Tres Grandes, or Big Three—José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros—started crafting radical, large-scale works that embraced Mexico’s Indigenous cultures and told epic narratives about the nation’s history.

As “Vida Americana,” an ongoing exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, argues, these sweeping, dynamic murals also had a major impact on Mexico’s neighbors to the north. As Mexican artists traveled to the U.S. (and vice versa), they taught their peers how to break free of European conventions and create public art that celebrated American history and everyday life. On the show’s well-organized online hub, art lovers can explore short documentaries, audio guides, essays and other resources in both Spanish and English. Click through some of the selected artworks from the show to encounter Rivera’s Detroit Institute of Art masterpiece, a massive 27-mural cycle that offered Americans reeling from the Great Depression a visionary outlook of their country’s future industrial potential, and Siqueiros’ experimental workshop, which directly inspired Jackson Pollock’s Abstract Expressionism.

“Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures”

The Museum of Modern Art (New York City)

Recognized today as one of America’s foremost photographers, Dorothea Lange is known for her arresting portraits of the human condition and keen social awareness—qualities perhaps best exemplified by her 1936 image Migrant Mother, which became a de facto symbol of the Great Depression.

But few people know that Lange was also enamored with the written word. As she once said, “All photographs—not only those that are so called ‘documentary’… can be fortified by words.” Lange believed that words could clarify and add context to photographs, thereby strengthening their social impact. In her landmark photobook An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion, she became one of the first photographers to incorporate her subject’s own words into her captions, as Smithsonian reported in August.

Through this MoMA exhibition’s online hub, viewers can read selections of Lange’s writing, watch a series of short videos on her work, listen to interviews with curator Sarah Meister, and—of course—take their time studying close-up versions of the artist’s iconic photographs.

“Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation”

Museum of Fine Art, Boston (Boston, Massachusetts)

Jean-Michel Basquiat is often touted as a singular genius. His large-scale works, which riff on color, phrases and iconography to probe issues of colonialism, racism and celebrity, regularly fetch enormous sums at auction.

But the graffiti artist–turned–painter, who died of a heroin overdose at age 27, didn’t develop his artistic vision in a vacuum: Instead, he was profoundly influenced by a network of peers and close collaborators. “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation,” which opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in October, is the first show to consider the influence of Basquiat’s large circle of mainly black and Latino collaborators, all of whom shaped the painter’s artistic vision in 1980s New York City.

The museum complemented its in-person show with a multimedia-heavy online exhibition, which includes detailed essays, images of works in the show and clips of interviews with the artist. Viewers are encouraged to scour lesser-known artworks from Basquiat’s peers, such as the “Gothic futurist” paintings of Rammellzee and the rebellious murals of Lady Pink, in search of themes and styles that Basquiat echoed in his own work.

“Making the Met, 1870–2020”

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

A group of businessmen and civic leaders purchased the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first work—a marble sarcophagus from ancient Rome—in 1870. Since then, the museum’s collections have become some of the greatest troves of cultural heritage in the world, constituting an encyclopedic range of artifacts that attracts millions of visitors each year.

This year, the Manhattan museum celebrated its 150th birthday by hosting a celebratory exhibition and slate of virtual offerings: Among others, the list of digital resources includes an hour-long audio tour of some of the exhibition’s highlights, as narrated by actor Steve Martin; an interactive online version of the show; and a virtual walkthrough courtesy of Google Arts and Culture. Met officials also made a rare gem available for public viewing: Behind the Scenes: The Working Side of the Museum, a silent 1928 documentary that depicts curators and janitors at work in the iconic New York building.

“The Museum of the World”

The British Museum (London, England)

Click this image to access the interactive timeline.

(Screenshot via British Museum / Google Arts & Culture)

An innovative example of the possibilities of online exhibitions, the British Museum’s “Museum of the World” debuted in February 2020—and it couldn’t have been better timed. Though the museum remained closed to in-person visitors for much of the year, desktop computer users were able to use this interactive timeline to visualize connections between different items in the museum’s vast collections.

On the website, which the museum developed in partnership with Google Arts & Culture, viewers can trace links through time and space, jumping from a handscroll describing courtly behavior of ladies in the Eastern Jin Dynasty of China to the jade plaque of a Maya king. With a slick interface and audio elements, the timeline encourages viewers to take an interactive, self-directed trip through the material culture of human history.

Notably absent from the project is an acknowledgement of the London museum’s colonialist history, which came under renewed scrutiny this summer amid global protests against systemic racism. In August, the cultural institution moved a bust of its founder, who profited from the enslavement of people in Jamaica, to a new display featuring added contextualization. As Aditya Iyer writes for Hyperallergic, the museum recently made a “promising but flawed start [at] grappling with” this legacy by curating a self-guided tour titled “Empire and Collecting.” Available online in an abbreviated format, the tour traces the “different, complex and sometimes controversial journeys of objects” that entered the collections, according to the museum’s website.

“The Night Watch”

The Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Click this image to access the interactive portal.

(Screenshot via the Rijksmuseum)

In this new hyper-resolution view of Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch, art lovers can pore over every detail of the Dutch master’s most famous painting—down to every crack and stray paint splatter, as Theresa Machemer wrote for Smithsonian in May. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam debuted the interactive version of its prized painting as part of a lengthy restoration process dubbed Operation Night Watch. Last year, experts began restoring the 11- by 15-foot painting in a glass chamber installed in the middle of the museum, offering visitors a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at the conservation process.

Officially titled Night Watch, Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, the 1642 painting depicts a captain instructing a cadre of soldiers. In the online guided tour (which comes with options for children and adults), users can zoom in on different aspects of the painting while a soundscape—the swish of a cloak, a horse’s hooves, an eerie melody, a far-off bell—sets the mood. Look for Rembrandt’s signature, his presumed self-portrait lurking in the painting’s background, the striking young girl with a chicken dangling from her belt and other mysterious elements embedded in the action-packed scene.

According to a statement, the image combines 528 exposures into one composite, making it the most detailed rendering of Rembrandt’s masterpiece ever created. The project is a prime example of how online galleries can encourage viewers to engage in repeated, close study of the same piece of art—and proof that they can always discover something new.

“Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution”

Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (Ghent, Belgium)

Click this image to access the virtual experience.

(Screenshot via Museum of Fine Arts Ghent)

Curators and art enthusiasts were crushed when the pandemic forced a blockbuster Jan van Eyck exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent to close less than two months after opening. The once-in-a-generation show—titled “Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution”—represented the largest-ever display of van Eyck’s paintings and was “so unlikely to be repeated that the museum might as well use ’now or never,’” as J.S. Marcus wrote for the Wall Street Journal in January.

In response to the unexpected closure, the museum pivoted, partnering with Belgian virtual reality company Poppr to create a 360-degree tour of the gallery with accompanying audio guides for adults and children. Star items featured in the show included Portrait of a Man (Léal Souvenir) and panels from the spectacular Ghent Altarpiece, whose center panel depicts Jesus as a sacrificial lamb on an altar, alive but bleeding from a wound. Prior to the exhibition, the panels had not left their home in St. Bavo’s Cathedral since 1945, as Sophie Haigney reported for the New York Times earlier this year.

Born in 1390 in what is now Belgium, van Eyck created spectacularly detailed oil paintings of religious scenes. As the show’s website notes, only about 20 of the Flemish master’s paintings survive today.

“Wise and Valiant: Women and Writing in the Golden Age of Spain”

Instituto Cervantes (Madrid, Spain)

Click this image to browse the exhibition’s essays and artworks online.

(Screenshot via Instituto Cervantes)

Spain’s Golden Age is perhaps best known for producing Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote, El Greco’s eerily elongated portraits and Lope de Vega’s prolific plays. But as the now-closed exhibition “Wise and Valiant” showed, these individuals and their male peers weren’t the only creative geniuses at work during the 16th and 17th centuries. Though women’s opportunities at the time were largely limited to the domestic and religious spheres, a select few took advantage of the relative intellectual freedom offered by life in a convent to pursue writing professionally.

From Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to playwright Ana Caro and nun-turned-soldier Catalina de Erauso, hundreds of women across the Spanish Empire published poetry, diaries, novels, dramatic works and travelogues. Though many of these works have since been lost or forgotten, scholars are increasingly taking steps to recover their authors’ hidden stories—a trend reflected in the Madrid show, which explored women writers’ lives through a display of more than 40 documents. As Lauren Moya Ford observed in Hyperallergic’s review of the show, the online version of the exhibition (available in both Spanish and English) presents their stories in a “format well-suited to this dense, delicate material.” Users can delve into digitized historical documents, browse curator commentary and watch a video montage of relevant clips.

#History

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

When protests kicked off throughout the nation a week and a half ago, commentators turned to history to make sense of events. One year dominated the conversation: 1968. Racial tensions, clashes between police and protesters, a general sense of chaos — 1968 and 2020 seemed to have a lot in common. Observers wrote about how Trump’s use of “law and order” rhetoric echoed Richard Nixon and George Wallace in 1968. The comparison makes broader sense, too: 1968 was a destabilizing year in American politics, marked by Civil Rights protests, uprisings born out of racist oppression, assassinations, violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (classified later as a “police riot”) and protests against the Vietnam War. Racial tensions and inequality were at the center of the instability that year, with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. sparking uprisings in cities across the country.

But 1968 isn’t the only chapter in American history that’s relevant to the current crisis. America has a long history of racial injustice, which makes it difficult to isolate any one precedent for the current environment. History has a way of building on itself; the injustices of one generation are passed on to the next, even as incremental progress is made. This is why I want to share with you three other episodes that also help contextualize the moment we’re in now. They, like 1968 and the broader Civil Rights movement, highlight the depths of violence and injustice that black Americans have faced, and explain why everyday political processes have failed to bring about lasting systemic change.

1990s: National attention on police brutality spurs action … sort of

The early 1990s saw two connected developments that still shape the dynamics of policing in the U.S. First, in 1991, before there were cell phones everywhere, a witness in Los Angeles caught police officers beating Rodney King on a hand-held camcorder, and the video caught the nation’s attention. The four officers charged in the incident were acquitted, which sparked further national outrage, and some Los Angeles residents took to the streets, turning to violence and destruction of property. In total, the demonstrations lasted for five days.

The Rodney King episode is different in important ways from the protests happening now over George Floyd’s death, but there are still some similarities. Namely, it was a high-profile incident of police brutality that underscored just how differently police treat black Americans from white Americans. Additionally, a bystander’s video recording of the officers beating King brought the incident to national audiences, heightening a broad sense of injustice when the verdict was announced.

The fallout after the King verdict is worth considering in this moment. For one, some research shows that the event triggered lower public trust in the police in Los Angeles, especially among African Americans.

The role of the federal government is instructive here as well. In 1992, California Gov. Pete Wilson requested military assistance under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which Trump has suggested he might also invoke now. But LA’s ordeal also prompted federal change — Congress passed legislation allowing the Department of Justice to order reforms of police departments found to have engaged in misconduct. That ability has allowed the federal government to investigate police departments and root out poor practices. This oversight, however, has not been enough to prevent police killings, as we saw again with Floyd.

This provision was also part of a larger piece of anti-crime legislation — the now somewhat-infamous 1994 crime bill that helped create the mass incarceration crisis and forced recent Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to confront their past stances on crime. The crime bill arguably helped to create some of the challenges today’s protesters are responding to. As sociologist Philip McHarris explained in The Washington Post, the bill “flooded black communities with police, helped states to build prisons and established harsher sentencing policies.” These policies not only helped to create the conditions for further police violence, but by expanding policing and incarceration in the U.S., they also helped to diminish the political power of many black communities through disenfranchisement and disengagement.

The point is that while focusing national attention on police brutality brought about needed change in some respects, reforms fall short when the system charged with implementing that change has racist origins.

Reconstruction: The federal government fails to protect black lives

After the American Civil War ended slavery in 1865, there was no road map for what Southern society would look like, but white Americans quickly adoped two major changes that harmed formerly enslaved people. First, Southern states passed laws restricting black citizens’ freedoms and essentially preserving the abuses of slavery. Second, violence against freed people living in those areas changed form but very much continued, and included the destruction of homes and churches, and sexual violence.

Particularly relevant to the current moment: Then-President Andrew Johnson allowed all this to happen. He failed to extend federal protection to the victims of the violence that Southern whites were engaging in, and, through his liberal use of pardons and lax loyalty requirements, he even allowed former Confederate leaders to find important roles in new state governments. These individuals, once in power, enacted oppressive measures. As historian Annette Gordon-Reed describes in her biography of Johnson, simple things like hunting and fishing became criminal activities for many black Americans, meaning they were increasingly dependent on their employers for their livelihoods.

Johnson’s decision to allow both state and non-state violence against southern blacks deeply shaped American racial politics. The laws states adopted in this period ultimately created the status quo that the civils rights movement of the 1960s pushed back against.

But this historical period is also a pivotal one in understanding race relations in America today as it highlights the lasting repercussions of morally bankrupts presidential judgment. As my colleague Perry Bacon and I wrote a few days ago, the events of the last few days — and years — suggest that Trump is not interested in using federal power to help those protesting racial injustice, and is, at best, indifferent to those goals. Experts have compared Johnson to Trump for years. History shows us that when federal leaders ignore racial injustice and violence — and certainly when they embody and enshrine it — that injustice and violence continues unabated, even if its form changes.

Early 1900s: Black Americans organized and met opposition at every turn

The power structure created after the Civil War led to a lynching crisis in the South (and elsewhere in the U.S.). Thousands of lives were lost in this brutal and inhumane system of vigilante justice — journalist Ida B. Wells, for instance, wrote extensively to document the violence of lynching and to spread awareness nationwide about what was happening.

But it is also in this dark chapter of American history that black American activists entered a new phase in organizing against systemic racism, using a variety of approaches. As political scientist Megan Ming Francis has written, this period gave birth to civil rights organizations like the NAACP, which pushed to change policy through Congress, the White House and the courts.

Those efforts made a real difference. Francis emphasizes the way in which black Americans organized and achieved these changes despite their exclusion from much of the political process and lack of traditional political power. These groups increased public awareness, improved legal standards and persuaded presidents to publicly denounce lynching.

The struggles of this movement, however, also illustrate how slow and frustrating it can be to work through official government channels. For instance, at the urging of these early civil rights activists, the House of Representatives passed an anti-lynching bill. But the bill died in the Senate after a filibuster, and no federal anti-lynching law was ever passed. (The latest anti-lynching bill was held up in the Senate as recently as June 4, 2020.) The American political system makes change difficult. In both Congress and the White House, Southern votes exerted a great deal of influence, and the opponents of an anti-lynching bill had both political power and the power of the status quo.

Every moment in history is distinct, and there are no perfect parallels for what’s happening in 2020. However, looking at other points in both the distant and recent past helps us see how deeply racial injustice is ingrained in the American system. The 1968 comparison can be helpful, but it also tempts us to frame the situation in terms of tranquility and unrest. But “tranquility” has been defined by those in power — almost always whites. Looking at other events helps answer some deeper questions about why people have taken to the streets to demand change and why protesters may be able to accomplish more faster by disrupting “normal” life. Because the system itself is part of the problem, politics, again and again, has set up the rules to make it difficult to pursue accountability and justice within the system.

[blamebrampton]

Any chance you could explain to this non-Brit how Boris Johnson went from Emily’s secret Tory crush and Draco’s genial uncle in blythely’s fic to actual Voldemort?

I will give it a red-hot go, with the caveats that it is very late in Sydney, I have managed to live on the other side of the planet for his entire political career and only crossed paths with media Boris and I am so enraged I have no interest in any notions of balance for balance’s sake.

Boris occupies a very particular place in British public life. He is a charming man, as even I will admit, and he is well read and gifted at Latin. That is the extent of the good I can say. When he is not doing anything important, that is enough: as a dinner guest, he would be entertaining. As an MC at a retirement function for a Classics professor, ideal. Cosplaying a mediaeval monk in a well-constructed LARP, utter perfection.

However, when it comes to actually doing useful things, the man is an incompetent buffoon whose only genuine talent is self-promotion. He was president of the Oxford Union, but widely considered useless in the role. He was sacked from his first media job for making up a quotation. He should have been sacked from his second media job for making up endless Euromyths (one of the few times I have agreed with John Major was on how much bullshit Boris wrote in his columns) and delivering nothing but blather in his political commentary. He not only flirted with Nationalist arses, he emboldened them and created a narrative for them. He was involved in a friend’s plan to beat up a journalist who had exposed said friend’s corruption, shagged far too many people he wasn’t married to (I’m all for shagging, but not for extended cheating on spouses) and was far more about celebrity than anything else, adding TV to his growing media gigs (NB editorial staff considered him over-rated, over-paid, and possibly an even bigger wanker than Giles Coren, which, when you consider Giles’s form (beautifully summed up in the linked blog), is damning).

In the early 2000s he finally succeeded in being elected as an MP. While nowhere near as good as cosplaying a mediaeval monk, MP was a fine position for him. He could be entertaining, he was kept ‘busy’ most of the time, he felt as though he was important without anyone taking anything he did the least bit seriously and his utter uselessness was covered up by the usefulness of other MPs, Peers and public servants. This is the Boris that appears in my For the Public Good and Blythely’s Corridors of Power, the affable uncle, who you might consider shagging if you were a particular type of girl and very, very drunk indeed.

Coralled in Westminster, the charm was highlighted and the damaging narcissism controlled. This was Boris’s Finest Hour. Alas, rather than doing the sensible thing and devoting his career to staunch backbenchering, a minor shadow ministry and then possibly ministry or two, and excellent late-career memoirs a la Alan Clark, he decided that he was The Great Man of our time and decided to set himself on a Churchillian pathway, which later included one of the worst biographies of recent decades on Winston himself (though, and here I will be fair, nothing like as lacking in all merit as Rees-Mogg’s The Victorians).

He won election as Mayor of London, where he came through on buses but nothing else, ran through at least one more marriage of his own, and reinvented himself as a major Eurosceptic, having previously treated the idea as good fodder for magazine columns (hastily cobbled together, often fictional, up to £5000 a pop columns, I remind you). He shouted a lot, but was, as my favourite Australianism has it, as useful as tits on a bull. This is the Boris that appears very thinly disguised as Draco’s boss in Little Red Courgette. He returned to being an MP before he finished his term as mayor, with a target on David Cameron, then Prime Minister.

Cameron himself won Prat of the Century when he basically announced a vote on Brexit rather than have an argument with Boris and co, Boris followed this up with more of what he does best: lies and self-promotion. Ironically, there was a bus involved: his one actual accomplishment bastardised with the lie that leaving the EU would return £350 million (I accidentally left of the million when I first published this, coincidentally making his lie something closer to the real figure) a week to the struggling NHS (struggling, like the police, thanks to Tory underfunding and gutting of support).

When the Brexiteers actually won, Cameron walked rather than deal with the mess he had created, and Boris balked at the prospect of running for leader, given the amount of thankless work on the horizon. He left Theresa May to struggle through three years of hopeless negotiations (not forgetting his hapless stint as Foreign Minister where he was most notable for getting a British charity worker convicted of spying in Iran) before feeling his time had come and destabilising her utterly to sweep the prize of the leadership from her hand. In his head, he may consider this having played a good long game. In actuality, he is about to take the country so far backwards so fast that it is possible he may actually end up meeting his hero Churchill in some sort of weird Doctor Who-ish time slip.

In a best-case scenario, his months as PM end so ignominiously that even his lack of shame is bested and he slinks off into a quiet retirement in Sardinia, reappearing in the headlines only as the victim of an exasperated girlfriend, who receives a lenient sentence given the circumstances. I would also accept crushed in a tragic wooden-box bus accident.

People draw parallels between Johnson and Trump and there is good reason for some of them. I will say that Boris is cleverer; I will also say that from his track record, this is almost impossible to tell.