#Washington Times-Herald | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hoonieyun · 25 days ago

Text

letter from: jongseong ⋆｡˚❆˚ ｡⋆

on the fifth day of christmas, you asked me what's on my wishlist and i told you all i wanted was forever with my boo... -ariana grance "true love"

pairing: park jongseong x reader

genre: romance/fluff - marriage proposal

warnings: nothing really but always 18+

summary: jongseong proposes on christmas day

christmas herald masterlist ⋆｡˚❆˚ ｡⋆

word count: 2932

The drive up to Jay’s winter family cabin up in Northern Washington was long but scenic. It had a lot of beautiful sights and fun pitstops that you’d never see back in South Korea. The two of you were vacationing in his home state for the holidays and after spending a few days in his hometown, your plan was now to drive up to his family’s winter cabin and spend Christmas there with just the two of you.

You and Jay have been together for almost 3 years now, January 1st would not only be bringing the new year but also marking the 3rd year of you and Jay’s relationship. You two have known each other since Jay moved to Korea from Seattle and it just so happened to be that your mom was from Seattle but moved to Korea when she met your dad. The two of you have been inseperable since.

Growing up together people would often make comments about how you two looked perfect for each other or just assumed that you two were dating and although you weren’t at the time, you couldn’t help but imagine a life where Jay was your prince charming– until about 3 years ago during your first year of University where Jay drunkely confesses that he’s had a crush on you since the two of you were 16. He embarrassingly tried to ignore it the next day but when you returned with a confession of your own, the two of you would spend the next few weeks dating and this eventually led to him finally asking you to be his girlfriend as the clock struck 12am on the new year.

The last 3 years of your life have been magical and spending it with your best friend who just happens to be your boyfriend made it all the better. Both of your parents already knew the two of you would eventually end up together, the only question was when.

“You doing okay, honey? We’re almost there.” Jay says, his calm voice pulling you out of the memories of the last 2 Christmases that you’ve spent together. When you first started dating you spent Christmas with both of your parents, then the next year only with your parents because Jay’s moved back to Seattle, and this year you spent a few days with his family before making the drive up to the cabin like you were doing now.

“I’m alright, don’t worry honey.” you respond, giving him a warm smile, one that he returns with his own. Warmth. That was a word you could use to describe Jay: warm.

Even on the coldest nights in Korea or here in Washington where it seems to be cold about 80% of the year, being around Jay was the warmth that you needed to forget about the freezing cold that threatened to nip at your skin, creating goosebumps that littered your body. Even when you weren’t feeling cold, Jay’s warmth was able to provide you with a type of serenity and solace that no one else could. Like he was this beacon of light that instantly soothed you whenever he was around. His kind, caring, and affectionate demeanor was what drew you to him. You truly were the luckiest person alive to be on the receiving end of Jay’s love and you wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the world because he let you feel the love and warmth you deserved to feel in a world that seemed to be freezing over with an icy cold pandemic that caused people to be unkind and mean spirited.

Jay glances over at you with that smile that you loved so much, grabbing your hand with his and pressing a kiss onto your knuckles, “I can’t wait to spend this time with you. It’ll be unforgettable.” he says before placing another warm kiss on your skin and setting it back down on your lap so he could drive with both hands on the wheel like the responsible guy that you knew him as.

After another pitstop to use the restroom and taking photos of the snow covered trees, you arrived at the cabin just a few hours before the sun would start to set. It was Christmas Eve and you and Jay planned to just settle in and have a calm day when you arrive and on Christmas Day you would have a wonderful dinner cooked by Jay and spend Christmas cuddled up in front of a fire most likely watching a Christmas movie you’ve seen x amount of times.

“We’re here!” Jay says enthusiastically, running out of his seat and over to your side of the car to open it for you but not before puckering up for a kiss as he helps you out of the car. The two of you unload the trunk of your things, just a few bags of clothes and food to last you the week as you’d be there until the New Year. The cabin was beautiful, it was surrounded by the tallest of trees that were covered in snow, several string lights were strung from different trees, and the cabin itself had its own charm. It had high reinforced windows, beautiful oak logs and panels that made up the cabin itself, and near the front of the door you found small footprints in the snow that you could assume to be from a family of deer somewhere in the snowy forest.

As Jay brought your bags and his into the cabin, you quickly check the hidden compartment of the trunk that lifted and revealed a section that was hidden into the bottom of the trunk itself. There laid your Christmas gift that you hid from Jay before you left for the drive to ensure he didn’t see you pack it into the car. You shut the compartment back up when Jay called for you and decided that you’d bring the gift in another time when Jay was preoccupied with something, perhaps while he’s cooking dinner tomorrow.

“Coming, honey!” you shout, closing the trunk and carefully skipping over to Jay who waited for you at the entrance of the cabin with his arms open. You quickened your pace as you got closer causing you to slip on the ice on the patio but of course, Jay, your knight in shining armor, was there to catch you before you could even come close to falling. A gasp leaves your lips but it leaves just as quick when you realize Jay has caught you with his strong arms wrapped around your waist.

“My savior!” you say dramatically, acting like you were about to faint from the situation and Jay decides to play along; throwing your legs into the air and catching you bridal style. “Fear not my lovely maiden! Your knight in shining armor is here to save you from your cute clumsiness.” he announces, walking the two of you and plopping you down onto the couch that was in the living room just a few feet from the front door. “Hey! I’m not clumsy…” you say, pouting.

“Aww, honey– yes you are.” Jay responds, placing a kiss onto your pouty lips in the middle of his sentence.

The rest of the day goes by fairly quickly as you and Jay spend most of it lounging around in each other’s warmth, laid up on the couch with his arms wrapped around you while you watch various Christmas movies.

Soon enough, you’re yawning and looking out the window to be met with the big and bright moon gleaming into the cabin through one of the windows; the shadows of snow falling from the sky bleeding into the moonlight. “Sleepy?” Jay asks and you look up at him, head still on his chest before nodding. “Off to bed we go!” he says, picking you up again bridal style and taking you to the bedroom where he tucks you in goodnight with his arms acting as an extra layer of warmth to the fluffy blanket covering the two of you.

“Goodnight honey.” Jay says with a kiss to your temple, his low and sweet voice almost lulling you to sleep.

“Goodnight, my love.” you respond quietly, sleep soon taking over as yours and Jay’s light snores fill the room.

⋆｡˚❆˚ ｡⋆

It’s Christmas morning and you’re awoken by the scent of pancakes, bacon, and eggs on the stove; an indicator that Jay is in the kitchen cooking up breakfast for the two of you– before you’re even able to throw the thick blanket off of your body, Jay is emerging from behind the bedroom door and walking over to your with bright eyes and a smile; holding a breakfast bed tray with the most delicious smelling and looking food. Eggs, just the way you like it, a stack of pancakes, crispy bacon, and a cup of hot cocoa in a mug that the two of you had made in a ceramic class one day when you first started dating.

“Babe!” you say with a bright eyed pout as you watch him come closer with the tray of food, Jay’s smile only getting bigger. “Breakfast for my queen.” he says as he sets it down over your legs. “This looks so delicious, thank you my love.” you say, sharing a kiss as a thank you to him for his kindness. “Did you eat?:” you ask and he nods, “Just a bit, don’t worry I’ll bring myself a plate over, i just want you to have a bite first.” he explains and you scrunch your nose at him with a small smile.

You soon take a bite of the pancake’s and it’s probably the best pancake you’ve ever had. Jay was a great cook but it’s the simpler foods that he cooks that is your favorite. It induces a nostalgic feeling like you’re 4 years old trying pancakes for the first time and it becomes your hyperfixation for the next month or so where that’s all you can ask your mom to make when she asks you what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Like Jay. You would choose him at any time of the day.

You cut him a small piece of the pancake and he takes the bite before excusing himself to grab his own plate so the two of you could have breakfast in bed together.

⋆｡˚❆˚ ｡⋆

It’s about 5PM when you’re doing the finishing touches to your hair and makeup for a Christmas dinner prepared by Jay. Your hair is done in simple voluminous curls that falls over your shoulders that hold up the black velvet dress you’re wearing with red bows and white fur accents. It’s cold but the warmth inside of the cabin allow for you to wear a dress so that you don’t freeze to death during your dinner with Jay.

You could smell the food he’s cooking from your bathroom and you can’t wait to eat whatever delicious food he’s cooked up.

“YN, honey! Dinner is ready, my love.” Jay shouts from the dining room and as if you teleported into the room, you’re walking in just as he’s finished setting up the table. He’s wearing a simple white button up that hugged his toned arms and physique and a warmth in your stomach begins to settle as you look at Jay, thinking about a life where he was your husband and not your boyfriend.

“Wow, you look… wow” Jay says, truly at a loss for words at your beauty.

“You don’t look so bad yourself, handsome.” you say, wrapping your arms around his neck as he wraps his arm around your waist; slowly dipping you into a kiss like you were in a romance movie of a lifetime.

“Let’s eat.” Jay says, pulling out your seat and pushing it in as you sit down; always a gentleman.

⋆｡˚❆˚ ｡⋆

You’re just about done with dinner when Jay suddenly clears his throat. “I know we agreed to not get each other gifts, but I couldn’t not get you anything.” he says and you teasingly narrow your eyes at him as he grabs a small wrapped box from the cupboard in the kitchen. “Did you really hide it up there?” you ask with a chuckle.

“Of course, I knew you’d never find it because you can’t reach up there.” he jokingly says and you pout at him as he puts the gift in front of you. Urging you to open it with his eyes, watching you with excitement as you carefully tear into the wrapping paper.

The item inside leaves you speechless, mouth agape, as you pull it out. Inside was a glass snowglobe, a ballerina in a pink dress spins as you shake the snowglobe. “How did you find this?” you ask, looking up at him with teary eyes. Jay explains that he spent months looking for it and one day when you guys were in Seattle, walking around downtown, the snowglobe caught his eye. He urged you and his parents to continue while he sneakily bought it and rejoined you all at a food stand.

It wasn’t just any snowglobe. It was the exact snowglobe you had when you were younger and dreamt of becoming a ballerina. Your dreams however, are cut short due to a knee injury, and the snowglobe was the last thing that helped you cope with your dreams as a child. You lost the snowglobe when you had moved cities for college and were devastated when you lost it in the move– and here you were now reunited with the beautiful object that reminded you of your youth and now also serves as a reminder of the kindness and love that Jay has for you.

You give him a tight hug and endless kisses as a thank you that he doesn’t decline, returning with a hug even tighter and accepting all the kisses you wanted to give to him.

“Well, I’m glad you ended up getting me something because I got you something too…” you confess and Jay raises his eyebrows with a little smile as you walk away to grab your gift. You had sneakily brought it inside from the car when Jay was in the shower.

His gift was fairly large so he instantly ran over to you so that you didn’t have to carry it from across the room to where he was sitting; the two of you moved to the living room to open his gift.

“Merry Christmas, honey.” you mutter and Jay gives you a smile before opening the box, mouth instantly open before he could even fully see the item inside of the large black box.

“You did not…” Jay says, looking over to you and you’re just nodding excitedly as he continues to open it, pulling out a glossy deep blue guitar that had little white spots that fall into the consellation of taurus– Jay’s sign.

He had been looking for this guitar for almost 2 years now and had no luck, luckily for you– you were able to find it one day when one of your friend’s was parousing around in the UK. They instantly called you to ask if that was the guitar and you nodded, telling them that you would send the money to purchase it and whatever cost the shipping would be, you’d paid for it.

“I can’t believe you found it, oh my god…” Jay says, placing the guitar on his thighs as he slightly plays with the strings, a small tune rings through the cabin as he adjusts the tuning. “Thank you, baby. Oh my god I’m speechless…” Jay says, getting up to give you a kiss on the lips like it was the first time you two had ever kissed.

He puts the guitar back in its case, “I’ve actually got one more gift…” Jay begins to say.

“YN, you’re absolutely the best thing to happen in my life. I can’t imagine a life without you– you’ve taught me a different type of happiness that I wouldn’t find in anyone else.

You’re the person I look for when I walk into a room.

You fill me with love that I’ve never felt before.

You allow me to make mistakes and encourage me to learn from them.

Growing up our parents and everyone around us seemed to have this premade story that we would end up together and I held that story in my heart, knowing that it wasn’t just a story but it would eventually become the truth.

Our story.

You’re my best friend, my teacher, the love of my life…” Jay says, kneeling down on one knee and pulling out a small red velvet box.

“YN, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?” Jay asks as tears are falling from your eyes.

You’re saying yes before he can even finish the question, jumping onto him with a hug as he chuckles at your reaction; engulfing you into a warm hug. “100% yes.” you mutter into his neck as the two of you stand up onto your feet. He gently places the ring onto your finger and once again the two of you share a kiss in front of the fireplace, snow falling outside, and the moons shining into the cabin through the crystal windows.

A kiss that feels like it’s your first kiss together and in many ways it is. It’s your first kiss as fiancés and you can’t wait to have your first kiss together as husband and wife.

all writing here is fiction & not in any association with characters mentioned.

if you enjoyed reading this please consider reblogging and following <3

#kiki diaries #enhypen #christmas herald #en-diaries #kpop #kpop au #kpop fic #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction #enha #fanfiction #enhypen au #enhypen x reader #enha x reader #enhypen jay #park jongseong #jongseong x reader

118 notes · View notes

afeelgoodblog · 2 years ago

Text

The Best News of Last Week - June 26, 2023

1. California's Lake Oroville now at 100% capacity following megadrought; 1st time since 2019

Once a stark example of the drastic effects of California's yearslong megadrought, Lake Oroville has rebounded and is once again filled to capacity, data from the state's Department of Water Resources shows.

Lake Oroville, the state's most beleaguered and second-largest reservoir, is at 100% of its total capacity and 127% of where it should be around this time of year - a huge boost after the climate-change-fueled megadrought sucked away nearly all its water supply.

2. Blue whales are thriving in California waters – the story of their amazing comeback

If you’ve recently taken a Southern California whale-watching tour, you may have been lucky enough to come across earth’s largest animal. Pacific blue whales grow up to 110 feet long and can reach a weight of 200 tons. Decades ago, blue whales were nearly hunted to extinction, and although still listed as protected under the Endangered Species Act, marine biologists and researchers are heralding a “conservation success story,” unlike any other.

According to a study published in 2014 by researchers at the University of Washington, the West Coast blue whale population has bounced back at tremendous levels, recouping 97% of its pre-whaling population

3. Newborn left in Florida Safe Haven Baby Box adopted by the firefighter who found her

Zoey is now 5 months old. Courtesy Zoey's family

A firefighter in Ocala, Florida, was pulling an overnight shift at the station in January when he was awakened at 2 a.m. by an alarm. He recognized the sound immediately. A newborn had been placed in the building’s Safe Haven Baby Box, a device that allows someone to safely and anonymously surrender a child — no questions asked.

“To be honest, I thought it was a false alarm,” said the firefighter, who wished to remain anonymous to protect his family’s privacy. But when he opened the box, he discovered a healthy infant wrapped in a pink blanket.

That baby would become his daughter, Zoey.

4. Iceland suspends whale hunt on animal welfare concerns

Iceland's government said Tuesday it was suspending this year's whale hunt until the end of August due to animal welfare concerns, likely bringing the controversial practice to a historic end.

"I have taken the decision to suspend whaling" until August 31, Food Minister Svandis Svavarsdottir said in a statement. The country's last remaining whaling company, Hvalur, had previously said this would be its final season as the hunt has become less profitable.

5. He wanted to pet dogs for his 100th birthday. Hundreds lined up.

Alison Moore had a unique idea to celebrate her father's 100th birthday: a pet parade filled with as many dogs as possible. Her father, Robert Moore, has always adored dogs and wanted to pet every one he saw. So, Alison took to social media and invited the community to join in the festivities. Little did she know that over 200 dogs and their owners would gather for the heartwarming event.

The parade brought immense joy not only to Robert but also to attendees like Rodger, who has Alzheimer's disease, and his daughter Denise, who hadn't seen her father smile so much in a long time. It was a day filled with wagging tails, smiling faces, and love that made Robert's milestone birthday an unforgettable celebration.

6. Historic decision: Estonia legalizes same-sex marriage

Tuesday, the Estonian government has survived a vote of no confidence in the Riigikogu tied to amendments to the Family Law Act and related legislation, which is granting same-sex couples the legal right to wed. 55 members of the Riigikogu voted in favor of the measure, while 34 voted against.

It is proposed that the institution of marriage, as defined by family law, be modified so that any two natural persons of legal age, regardless of gender, may marry. The words "man and woman" will be replaced with the words "two natural persons."

7. US approves chicken made from cultivated cells, the nation's first 'lab-grown' meat

For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.

The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.

----

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Support this newsletter ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog.

#best news of last week

1K notes · View notes

strryhaze · 20 days ago

Text

“A piece of correspondence sent from JFK to Jackie during their early courtship, [while she still worked as a reporter at the Washington Times-Herald]. The note conveys that their habit of sharing reading materials began early — a tradition they carried throughout their marriage. In this letter, JFK hints at his thoughts on gender equality.”

#source: original_spiritjbko #but originally from the jfk library #sincerely yours …. john f kennedy FUCKCKFJWNWN #also ‘this is what i have been fighting for for many years’ i chuckled he rlly said women should be hoes too!#however this is very sweet #god i know their intellectual conversations were something else …#they really were made for each other in a way … he couldn’t have ever married anyone else and jackie would’ve been easily bored #with a regular Joe #jackie kennedy #jfk #jackie o #jack kennedy #john f kennedy #j&j

86 notes · View notes

oceancentury · 6 months ago

Text

Working at @vogue; Like grandmother, like grandson. Jacquline Bouvier and John ‘Jack’ Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg photographed for American Vogue. 1951 (1 day) -> 2024.

Vassar College and George Washington University graduate, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy beat 1,279 candidates to win a Vogue junior editor position at the age of 21. However she quit at midday on her first day as she thought the role wasn’t a right fit for her. Her next job was as a columnist for the Washington Times-Herald and where she met her husband, John F. Kennedy.

In July 2024 Yale University, Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School graduate John ‘Jack’ Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg, aged 31 became the new political correspondent for American Vogue.

#jack schlossberg #Jackie Kennedy #black and white #vogue hire me #vogue #jacqueline kennedy

100 notes · View notes

thislovintime · 3 months ago

Text

With Shelli Farrell and (in photos 2 and 3) Carole Shelyne.

“Shelli Farrell [is] a Monkee Maid in The Monkees. Shelli is as enthusiastic as we are about the upcoming comedy. We predict this will be the hit of the season! […] Young and old will enjoy the wild adventures of the moppet foursome. But one must be quick-witted to catch all the subtle humor and social comment that is tossed about.” - The Daily Herald (Washington), September 3, 1966 “Of all the boys, Carole [Shelyne] found herself becoming closest to Peter. For some reasons which even she can’t understand or explain, Carole developed a very warm, close friendship with Peter — more so than any of the other boys. ‘Peter always fascinated me because I knew there was more to Peter than he let be seen. Peter is terribly intellectual and terribly bright. He’s gone through a lot of things, and has worked at a lot of manual labor because he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to go to school or not; he didn’t know just what he wanted. ‘Oddly enough, at the time this whole Monkee-thing started, I got the feeling he didn’t really care about it! Mike too. At that time, I got the feeling they didn’t really care about the whole thing, and did it only because it was a job. They didn’t think anything was going to come of it. I’m quite sure their attitude has changed now, because they all care terribly about their work and the quality of the work which they present to the public. ‘Peter is a very aware friend, and he knows how to make you feel very comfortable. He’ll go out of his way to help you, and he’ll take time out to check how you feel about things.’” - Monkee Spectacular, May 1968

#Peter Tork #Davy Jones #Micky Dolenz #Michael Nesmith #Tork quotes #60s Tork #The Monkees #Monkees #Carole Shelyne #Shelli Farrell #long read #can you queue it

43 notes · View notes

octuscle · 1 year ago

Note

Hey dude, I was looking at the costumes at your Halloween store and I can’t decide which one to get. I’m think of either the fire fighter, cowboy, superhero or werewolf. What do you think will look best in me? 😅

Dude, I think I have something very cool for you!

It's Friday morning. The package with the costume arrives. You look for the activation code and set in the app "Start immediately" "Transformation within 12 hours" and "Duration of the transformation until 01 November, 08:00 am". Bro, you will know what you are doing. This means that you will be in the costume from tonight until the end of the Halloween party….

The first thing you feel as you sit in the subway on your way to the office is that your English is getting worse and worse. You switch from the Washington Post app to El Nuevo Herald's. Your expensive suit begins to change into janitorial overalls. It still has your name on the nameplate. But the "M." no longer stands for Michael, but for Miguel. And you're no longer getting off the train downtown to go to work, you're driving on to the suburbs. You had an early shift. You're going home.

By the time you get to your little apartment, you're tired as hell. While brushing your teeth, you have the feeling that your blond hair is getting darker. And the shadow of your beard is also more pronounced than usual. You draw the curtains and fall into bed.

9:00 p.m. The alarm clock rings. Fuck, it's the weekend. You're not on weekend duty! Hermano, you need a few seconds to wake up. You're not on janitorial duty. You have to be on stage at 11:00. Miguel, the mariachi. Star of the strip show. You quickly put on some clothes, pack your stage outfit and run to the bus.

¡Ay, caramba! Your costume fits like a glove. Your concrete ass looks great in your pants. And it will look even better when you rip them off right away. October is a good month. You are booked throughout. On Halloween one more time on a private party. After that it's off to Mazatlan for a few days to recover. But now give everything on stage, Miguel!

Found your costume @maxx-magnum

#male tf #muscle tf #reality change #chronivac #male transformation #muscle transformation #race change #halloween tf

233 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 29 days ago

Text

Jim Morin, Miami Herald

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 17, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 18, 2024

Yesterday, Trump gave his first press conference since the election. It was exactly what Trump’s public performances always are: attention-grabbing threats alongside lies and very little apparent understanding of actual issues. His mix of outrageous and threatening is central to his politics, though: it keeps him central to the media, even though, as Josh Marshall pointed out in Talking Points Memo on December 13, he often claims a right to do something he knows very little about and has no power to accomplish. The uncertainty he creates is key to his power, Marshall notes. It keeps everyone off balance and focused on him in anticipation of trouble to come.

At the same time, it seems increasingly clear that the wealthy leaders who backed Trump’s reelection are not terribly concerned about his threats: they seem to see him as a figurehead rather than a policy leader. They are counting on him to deliver more tax cuts and deregulation but apparently are dismissing his campaign vows to raise tariffs and deport immigrants as mere rhetoric.

As the promised tax cuts are already under discussion, interested parties are turning to deregulation. Susanne Rust and Ian James of the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that on December 5, more than a hundred industrial trade groups signed a 21-page letter to Trump complaining that “regulations are strangling our economy.” They urged him to gut Biden-era regulations and instead to “partner” with manufacturers to create “workable regulations that achieve important policy goals without imposing overly burdensome and impractical requirements on our sector.”

They single out reductions in air quality, water quality, chemical, vehicle, and power plant environmental regulations as important for their industries. They also call for ending the “regulatory overreach” of the Biden administration on labor rules, saying those rules “threaten the employer-employee relationship and harm manufacturers’ global competitiveness.” They want an end to “right-to-repair” laws, a loosening of the rules for how and when companies need to report cyber incidents, and the replacement of mandated consumer product safety rules with “voluntary standards.”

They also call for cuts to the Biden administration’s antitrust efforts and for looser corporate finance regulations. On December 12, Gina Heeb reported in the Wall Street Journal that Trump’s advisors are exploring ways “to dramatically shrink, consolidate or even eliminate the top bank watchdogs in Washington,” including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

As Catherine Rampell explained in the Washington Post today, Congress created the FDIC in 1933 to protect bank deposits so that a bank’s customers can trust that mismanaged banks won’t lose their money. The FDIC also oversees those banks so that they are less likely to get into trouble in the first place. Congress created the system after people rushing to get their money out before a collapse actually created the very collapse that they feared, with one bank failure creating another in a domino effect that dug the economy even further into the crisis it was in after the Great Crash.

But the insurance money for those banks comes from fees assessed on the banks themselves, so abolishing the FDIC would save the banks money.

When he learned that Trump’s advisors are eyeing cuts to the FDIC, Princeton history professor Kevin Kruse commented: “When I lecture about New Deal banking reforms, I note that some of the key measures—like Glass Steagall—were repealed by the right with disastrous results like the 2008 financial meltdown, but ha ha, no one will ever be stupid enough to kill FDIC and bring back the old bank runs.”

Ben Guggenheim of Politico was the first to report that twenty-nine Republican members of Congress are also quick off the blocks in getting into the act of promoting private industry, calling for the incoming president to end the program of the Internal Revenue Service that lets people file their taxes directly without using a private tax preparer. Other developed countries use a similar public system, but in the U.S., private tax preparers staunchly opposed the public system. When more than 140,000 people used the IRS pilot program this year, they saved an estimated $6.5 million. Republicans called for its end, warning it is “a threat to taxpayers’ freedom from government overreach.”

But for all their faith that Trump will deregulate the economy, economic leaders seem to think his other promises were just rhetoric.

Brian Schwartz of the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that business executives have been lobbying Trump to change his declared plans on tariffs. The president-elect has vowed to place tariffs of 25% on products from Canada and Mexico, and of an additional 10% on products from China. He claims to believe that other countries will pay these tariffs, but in fact U.S. consumers will pay them. That, plus the fact that other countries will almost certainly respond with their own tariffs against U.S. products, makes economists warn that Trump’s plans will hurt the economy with both inflation and trade wars.

Schwartz reported that some companies and some Republicans are hoping that Trump’s tariff threats are simply a bargaining tactic.

Trump supporters say something similar about his vow to deport 11 to 20 million undocumented immigrants, hoping he won’t actually go after long-term, hardworking undocumented people. On December 10, Jack Dolan reported in the Los Angeles Times that the resort town of Mammoth Lakes, California, depends on migrant labor, and on December 15, Eli Saslow and Erin Schaff of the New York Times reported the story of an undocumented worker brought to the U.S. as an infant, who is now trying to figure out his future after his beloved father-in-law voted for Trump. Two days ago, CNN reported on Trump-supporting dairy farmers in South Dakota who depend on undocumented workers, insisting that Trump will not round up undocumented immigrants, no matter what he says.

One person who is not discounting Trump’s threats is Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell will give up his leadership position in January and has told his colleagues he feels “liberated.”

McConnell appears to be taking a stand against Trump’s expected appointee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy speaks often against vaccines, and after the New York Times reported that the lawyer working with Kennedy to vet potential HHS staff petitioned federal regulators to take the polio vaccine off the market, McConnell—a polio survivor—warned: “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed—they’re dangerous. Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”

McConnell has also been vocal about his opposition to Trump’s isolationism. He is a champion of sending military support to Ukraine and, after he steps down from the leadership, will chair the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, the subcommittee that controls military spending. “America’s national security interests face the gravest array of threats since the Second World War,” McConnell says. “At this critical moment, a new Senate Republican majority has a responsibility to secure the future of U.S. leadership and primacy.”

McConnell will also chair the Rules Committee, which gives him a chance to stop MAGA senators from trying to abandon the power of the Senate and permit Trump to get his way. McConnell has said that “[d]efending the Senate as an institution and protecting the right to political speech in our elections remain among my longest-standing priorities.”

That last sentence identifies the current struggle in the Republican Party. McConnell is showing his willingness to prevent Trump and MAGA Republicans from bulldozing their way through the Senate in order to undermine the departments of Justice, Defense, and Health and Human Services, among others. But when he talks about “protecting the right to political speech in our elections,” he is talking about protecting the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that permits corporations and wealthy individuals to flood our elections, and thus our political system, with money.

It is those corporations and wealthy individuals who are now lining up for tax cuts and deregulation, but who don’t want the tariffs or mass deportations or isolationism Trump’s “America First” MAGA base wants.

Trump and his team have been talking about their election win as a “mandate” and a “landslide,” but it was actually a razor thin victory with more voters choosing someone other than Trump than voting for him. He will need the support of establishment Republicans in the Senate to put his MAGA policies in place.

At yesterday's press conference, he appeared to be nodding to McConnell when he promised: “You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine. That’s not going to happen.” McConnell’s fierce use of power in the past suggests that the Senate’s giving up its constitutional power to bend to Trump’s will isn’t likely to happen, either.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Jim Morin #Miami Herald #autocracy #oligarchy #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #SCOTUS + Citizens United #corrupt SCOTUS #corrupt government #MAGA senators #TFG press conference #attention grabbing threats #lies

12 notes · View notes

sunnydaleherald · 2 months ago

Text

The Sunnydale Herald, Tuesday, November 26

Giles: Josephus du Lac was buried here. He belonged to a religious sect that was excommunicated by the Vatican at the turn of the century. Buffy: Excommunicated *and* sent to Sunnydale. There's a guy big with the sinning. Giles: You remember the book that was stolen from the library by a vampire a few weeks ago? Buffy: Yeah. Giles: It was written by Du Lac. Damn it! I let it slip my mind with all the excitement. Buffy: I'm guessing it wasn't a 'Taste of the Vatican' cookbook.

~~Buffy Episode #21: "What's My Line, Pt I" ~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Foolish (Buffy/Spike, T) by veronyxk84

Dominance (Angel/Spike, E) by Fanlifemiracle

Before Dawn (Dawn/Giles, E) by prairiekretch

Gambit (Buffy/Angel, E) by aboutafox

Twin of the Slayer (OC, Ensemble, G) by Mimobtvs

Forged in shadows Ch. 9 (Angel/Lindsey, E) by CloudSeeker

Группа крови Ch. 1-4/4 (COMPLETE) (Buffy/Angel, T) by B_E_S

Opposite Attraction Ch. 3/6 (Angel/Spike, T) by MamaBewear

Gadding About Ch. 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Lierdumoa

Aegis Ch. 31/? (Xander, T, multiple xovers) by dogbertcarroll, Narsil

Smoke and Leather Ch. 10/? (Spike/OC, M) by EagleAlwaysFliesAlone

[Chaptered Fiction]

Urgo’s Return. Ch. 1-2/? (Ensemble, G, SG-1 xover) by Callarose_aka_FireDragon

Miss Summers Goes to Washington Ch. 1/ ? (Buffy/Faith, M) by storiwr

Words Inside a Shell Ch. 1/? (Spike/Reader, E) by Ma6icki

The Motion of Her Ocean Ch. 1/? (Buffy/Spike, E) by sunalso

Unbroken, Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Blade Redwind

Carol of a missing lipstick , Chapter 5-8 (Buffy/Spike, G) by rossshin

Evaporate, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Soulburnt

Soul Searching, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by CheekyKitten

Dear Journal , Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Desicat

Ship of the Line: Walk in Dark Places Ch. 15 (Xander, M) by KnifeHand

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:Buffy & Angel () by nugge-is-my-duckie

Artwork:AtS Cartoon () by paulgadzikowski

Artwork:Xander () by nightheartcomics

Artwork:Buffy & Spike () by smoochiekissies

Artwork:Buffy & Spike () by izachin

Artwork:Faith, Kendra, & Buffy () by sideartblog999

Video: bangel x like real people do () by bangelism

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: Episode 51 - Attack of the Purple Ninja! (Enemies) by The Sunnydale Diaries

PODCAST: ATS 306 - Billy by Another Buffy Podcast

[Community Announcements]

Tuesday Prompts: Memory Lane by comment-fic

The Buffy x Giles Writing Event is now open by thecrazyknight

[Fandom Discussions]

Y'all this is a piece of history right here. by glamourweaver, sorrelchestnut, denizoid:

shiny happy people is like wow by all-seeing-ifer

honestly i think cordelia was probably a potential slayer. by xaeyrnofnbe

How long was I gone? by Manestaltan

how could they not notice?? by GainOver5676

Wanted to gush for a moment about just how GORGEOUS our Giles is! by Jdobbs626

No Spoilers please - first time watching Angel, up to season 3 episode 13 by A_lurker_succumbed

Is season 5 the best season? by East_Mushroom683

Dawn by Human-Hospital6696

XANDER YOU RUINED EVERYTHING THIS EPISODE!!!! | S3 E7 “Revelations” by The_Fullmetal_Titan

Who do you all think was in the right here and why (BtVS subreddit) by No-Iron5889

Who do you all think was in the right here and why (AtS subreddit) by No-Iron5889

Poor Joyce….. by tomatocreamsauce

Innocent victim of the day by timmorris82

If SMG left after season 5 by Particular-Employ326

What do you think of their analysis of Spike in Fool For Love by Cailly_Brard7

What would you uncanon? by Remarkable_Mud6377

Cordy and Fred friendship potential by darinani

Is Lorne green because of Lorne Greene? by ginime_

Anya Jenkins Once Rudely Said by Past-Throat-6788

What is the exact moment of true happiness for Angel? by Ok-Supermarket-7506

What are your theories about what happened after season seven? by X3vyW3vy

What are some moments in the Buffyverse that the writers unintentionally made a "good guy" (figure of speech, women included as well of course) feel like a villain to you? by PristineSituation498

Giles is Always Ripper by No_Introduction_4136

Angel in a Hell dimension by brwitch

Rewatch and podcasts by Kimmyb325

Angels curse makes no sense by Sweaty_Affect9363

What instruments are used here? by LessTrack6622

Someone posted this on a Buffy page and got an unexpected comment from the crew! by PyrrhuraMolinae

Rewatching Angel, and realized that Spike isn’t the only person who tried to turn a family member by thequeenofsastiel

in Lover’s Walk Spike said about Dru by aphony-cree

I wished Kate and Angel had become a couple. by BabyBlueN7

How many episodes of buffy had guns? by unpaid_official

Gunn Appreciation Post by No-Iron5889

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #fan art #fan fiction #meta

11 notes · View notes

rjzimmerman · 2 months ago

Text

Excerpt from this story from Mother Jones:

Americans of a certain age tend to throw around the term “Orwellian” willy-nilly. But the expression really suits in describing the behavior of our felonious, twice-impeached president-elect.

In George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, a dictatorship represented by the all-powerful “Big Brother” dictates the reality its citizens must adhere to, however topsy-turvy. Official slogans include “ignorance is strength,” “freedom is slavery,” and “war is peace.”

In this context, another slogan comes to mind: “Drain the swamp.”

Trump didn’t invent this populist expression, but he made it a centerpiece of his first campaign—a vow to rid DC of the toxic influence of special interest money, lobbyists, etc. Of course, politicians of both parties have long railed, often without much credibility, against special interests in Washington, and the US Supreme Court’s trashing of campaign finance safeguards has indeed created a cesspool of oligarchic influence in DC that crosses party lines.

It’s not the slogan itself that’s Orwellian. The Orwellian part is Trump’s evocation of the Swamp as he appoints foxes to guard the federal henhouse yet again. It’s a trolling of the libs, but a trolling with potentially dire consequences—and a signal that our government is for sale, more openly now than ever.

Exhibit A: Trump’s selection of Chris Wright, the CEO of a Denver fracking services company called Liberty Energy, for the position of energy secretary. Wright has no government experience and certainly no experience related to the nuclear weapons whose oversight is a critical part of DOE’s role.

Meanwhile, as typical of Trump’s cabinet picks to date, Wright’s other qualifications for the job are—to use Orwellian “Newspeak”—doubleplusungood.

It has escaped nobody’s notice that Trump’s top consideration in doling out key positions is loyalty to the boss. For attorney general, he chose Matt Gaetz, an inexperienced lawyer (but fierce loyalist) who has been accused of sexual impropriety—no charges were ever filed—and is notorious for allegedly foisting upon House colleagues videos of women he’s bedded. For his director of national intelligence, Trump picked Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman my colleague Dan Friedman describes as a “uniquely bad choice.” Namely, she lacks intelligence experience and is so in sync with Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine that her nomination was even celebrated on Russian television. To oversee White House communications, he picked a bomb-thrower who cut his teeth at UFC. For Health, he chose Robert Kennedy Jr., a man with no academic expertise in the areas he would oversee, and whose views and priorities are far from the mainstream, as my colleague David Corn has reported. (In this administration, apparently, ignorance is indeed strength.)

Wright, too, is a loyalist, but this pick feels distinctly transactional—Swamplike. Trump, after all, met multiple times during his campaign with top fossil-fuel CEOs, promising that, if they gave him money and helped him get elected, they would be richly rewarded. Wright, who denies the climate crisis and completely dismisses the US clean energy transition—which is weird, because it is well under way, despite the fossil fuel industry’s attempts to thwart it—is the industry’s reward. As was Trump’s choice for Interior, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgham, who is apparently champing at the bit to expand drilling on federal land.

The New York Times reports that Wright’s wife, Liz, co-hosted a Trump fund-raiser in Montana, and that the couple donated a total of $350,000 to a Trump campaign committee. Most notably, Wright was the preferred choice of oil billionaire Harold Hamm, a major Trump donor and co-host of gatherings where candidate Trump wooed oil executives with what sounded suspiciously like a pay-to-play pitch.

#trump #US oligarchy #drain the swamp #Chris Wright #fossil fuel industry

18 notes · View notes

derekhernandezfuentes · 2 years ago

Text

I predict that the Communist Chinese Empire will abruptly Stop lending to Our United States Socialist Government, possibly causing our Capital Markets like @mcdonalds McDonalds, @burgerking Burger Kings @wendys Wendy’s, @wholefoods Whole Foods Markets, Sweet Tomatoes, Walmarts, Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of America to Collapse — unless Democrats give up taxing us and our businesses and Business Empires like Foods Stocks and Foods Companies and finally Corporatize Public Libraries, Museums, K-12 Schools, Colleges, Universities, Post Office, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Foods Stamps, NASA, Militaries, and many other Government entities before we STARVE! Democrats cannot tax all of Our Foods and Foods Businesses to Success! It’s impossible to Succeed if Government Democrat voters keep voting to punish our delicate foods businesses with taxes, penalties and other fees! Learn Macroeconomics and Quantitative REASONING! Sociologists frequently ask, “What resolves war and famine?”, and the Answer really is Cutting Taxes for Our Foods, Medicines, Clothes, Apartments, Houses, and Medical Devices and Supplies and to lower Trade Taxes known as “Tariffs” so we can Trade Foods, Medicines, Medical Devices, Medical Supplies, Clothes, Music, Movies, Books, Pens, Pencils, Calculators, Computers, and More of the Good Stuffs to each other’s countries intercontinentally so we Trade Foods and not declare War!

3 notes · View notes

savvylittlecoxswain · 8 months ago

Text

Although the ship mounted a few rowing machines on the deck, the Washington oarsmen did little crew training. The rowing machines employed a pulley system to provide resistance, and although the scullers worked out on them, Ulbrickson did not like their mechanics. The oar handles, for instance, did not move vertically, and this threatened to worsen his oarsmen's technique. After watching the unnatural stroke channeled by the machine, Ulbrickson told his crew to "forget it." He ordered them to walk the decks a few times each day. "That was the only training," McMillin recalled.

Amid the boredom of the repetitive blue horizons, the men found ways to amuse themselves. "The Washington eight walked the promenade deck in formation from Coxswain Bob Moch and piano-playing stroke Don Hume down the line to Herbert Morris, bow oar, counting the rhythm of their beat," J.P. Abramson of the New York Herald-Tribune reported.

— an excerpt from Six minutes in Berlin: broadcast spectacle and rowing Gold at the Nazi Olympics by Michael J., Socolow

#Ok but I never quite understood why Ulbrickson disliked the rowing machines but now it makes total sense #I support his decision 1000%#the boys in the boat #boys in the boat #Al Ulbrickson #bobby moch #jim mcmillin #roger morris #don hume #quotes #book quotes #Olympics #SS Manhattan

32 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 4 months ago

Text

What ended Israel’s last invasion of Lebanon in 2006—and made the latest incursion all but inevitable—is a once-heralded U.N. resolution honored more in the breach than the observance. The sad saga and uncertain future of Resolution 1701 act as a mirror to nearly everything that has happened between Israel and Lebanon in the 18 years since it was passed.

In the summer of 2006, U.N. Resolution 1701 became that vanishingly rare creature—a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution on the Middle East—that put an end to Israel’s unsuccessful 34-day invasion of Lebanon, which had been intended to oust Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. The resolution, heartily welcomed in Tel Aviv and Beirut, seemed to point the way toward a lasting peace by obliging Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah and Israel to respect Lebanon’s sovereign frontiers.

For both drafters and diplomats at the time, the agreement seemed to give both countries something that they deeply craved. Lebanon, just emerging from the shadow of Syrian occupation, would see a chance to enforce its shaky writ over the entirety of its own territory and get a promise from the U.N. to perhaps, one day, look into the territorial disputes around the Shebaa Farms area that have vexed the region for decades. Israel would gain a security cushion along its northern border, with the troublesome Hezbollah pushed back at least as far as the Litani River, if not disarmed nationwide.

None of that, alas, came to pass. Hezbollah not only remained in southern Lebanon, south of the Litani River, but also grew and rearmed itself exponentially in the wake of the 2006 war. Lebanon never did get satisfaction for the simmering land dispute on the border with Syria in areas currently occupied by Israel. The large U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon had no remit to take on Hezbollah, which was the only way to actually keep the peace. And the Blue Line marking the border between Lebanon and Israel became not an inviolable frontier, but rather a trip wire for nearly two decades of provocations, threats, and attacks.

That is why on Tuesday, as Israel launched its renewed ground incursion into Lebanon, Israeli security officials pointed to the failures of U.N. Resolution 1701 as a casus belli.

“There is a U.N. resolution, still valid, that requires Hezbollah not to be deployed south of the Litani River, and the Israelis can point at that all day, every day,” said Matthew Levitt, an expert on Hezbollah and terrorism at the Washington Institute.

It’s not that the diplomatic end to the 2006 war was a bad idea; it’s that the optimistic assumptions rooted in the resolution never came close to becoming reality.

The resolution is “a great benchmark. Both Israel and Lebanon could benefit. But there is no credible enforcement mechanism,” said David Daoud, an expert on Lebanon and Hezbollah at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The fundamental problem with the resolution is that its core premise was that the Lebanese state (and military) would at least keep Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, if not move to disarm the group entirely and reclaim the monopoly on armed violence that is the hallmark of actual sovereign states. That plan never came close to realization, and despite optimistic visions in 2006 of Lebanon’s future, likely never could have.

Hezbollah is not just a militia, or part of the anti-Israel “axis of resistance,” or an Iranian proxy, or a terrorist group. It is all of those things, but it is also, as Levitt has written, a shadow state within Lebanon. It is part of the government without being the government. It snared more votes in the last legislative elections than any other formation and has a de facto veto on every governmental decision in the country. It runs social services, finds jobs for supporters, and is wildly popular among the large and growing Shiite community. It is also the most heavily armed and combat-capable organization in the country.

“The implementation of Resolution 1701, because it depends for implementation on the Lebanese state, would require Hezbollah’s prior consent, and Hezbollah is not in the business of destroying itself,” Daoud said. The combination of its strong public support and armed might means that any effort by the government to disarm or neuter the group would lead to another Lebanese civil war, he added. “And Hezbollah would win. So it is a combination of the Lebanese government being both unwilling and unable” to fully implement the resolution after all these years, he said.

Earlier this year, the Lebanese government balked at implementing the bits of the resolution that carried obligations for it (dealing with Hezbollah) by noting that the parts of the resolution that carried a prize for it (resolution of the land dispute) were still nowhere to be seen. Lebanon, said Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, “will not accept half-solutions.”

As the drums of war beat louder, the Lebanese government said earlier this week that it was ready to finally implement Resolution 1701 by deploying the Lebanese army to the border region in southern Lebanon. But it never tackled head-on the resolution’s requirements to defang Hezbollah, which continued, as it had since the opening of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, launching thousands of cross-border attacks on Israel and displacing tens of thousands of Israeli citizens from the northern part of the country.

That is what Israel meant when it invoked Resolution 1701 in launching the latest incursion: If the Lebanese government is unable or unwilling to keep Hezbollah away from Israel’s border as it is required to do, then Israel will do that itself.

The tricky part, as the U.N. mission in southern Lebanon helpfully noted in the early hours of the latest invasion, is that Israel’s cross-border incursion of Lebanon is itself a violation of the terms of Resolution 1701. On the surface, violating a key U.N. resolution seems an odd way to go about enforcing it.

In reality, under international law, a state that is the victim of a terrorist group has the right of reprisal if, after years of fruitless efforts, the state harboring that terrorist group refuses to act. The United States deployed just that logic in dealing with terror threats in places such as Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The bigger question is whether Israel’s latest invasion is ultimately an effort to resuscitate Resolution 1701 and all its promises, or rather a bid to demonstrate once and for all that no scrap of paper, if backed only by the will and reach of the government of Lebanon, will bring security to Israel’s northern border.

“I think the Israelis are thinking: ‘We want to get our citizens back home. We can’t have Hezbollah sitting across the border planning Oct. 7-style attacks, so here is this resolution that was never implemented; it’s designed to guarantee peace and security on both sides of the border, so let’s implement it,’” Daoud said. In that vision, Israel might impose a buffer zone in southern Lebanon and essentially push Hezbollah closer to the Litani River, as the resolution was meant to do.

France and the United States spent recent weeks working to craft a diplomatic solution to the looming conflict, trying to delink Israel’s tensions with Hezbollah from its ongoing fight with Hamas further south in Gaza. But, as France’s foreign minister told the United Nations last week, any real solution must begin with a full implementation of Resolution 1701. And the lack of Hezbollah buy-in on the latest diplomatic overtures may have doomed them from the start. Even after the Biden administration, which had been searching for a solution for months, threw its weight last week behind a 21-day cease-fire proposal, Israel’s foreign minister rejected it less than 12 hours later.

Having contended with an escalating tempo of rocket and missile attacks from Hezbollah for almost a year, Israel appears unlikely to agree to any diplomatic solution that would see a return to the status quo that existed before the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.

“Israel cannot be put in a position where we cannot enforce those agreements in Lebanon ourselves,” said Eyal Hulata, Israel’s former national security advisor. “It must be clear that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has the ability to interdict violations of the agreement, particularly in southern Lebanon.”

Or, after nearly two decades of failed promises and expanding Iranian support for its prodigal proxy group, Israel (and its allies and partners) may conclude that the heart of the matter lies not a few miles north or south of the Litani River, but in Tehran.

“What will be required to prevent Iran from resupplying and funding Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and Hamas?” Levitt asked. “So the lesson this time may be: A nicely worded document is not going to do it.”

12 notes · View notes