#We can talk about the antisemitism of this entry later

[immediatebreakfast]

By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black. His face was turned from us, but the instant we saw we all recognised the Count—in every way, even to the scar on his forehead. With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker's hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us Van Helsing, Art, and I moved forward to Mrs. Harker, who by this time had drawn her breath and with it had given a scream so wild, so ear-piercing, so despairing that it seems to me now that it will ring in my ears till my dying day.  Then she put before her face her poor crushed hands, which bore on their whiteness the red mark of the Count's terrible grip

Is this supposed to be the "timeless forbidden love story" that so many adaptations brag about? Is this treatment supposed to be "subversion of the expected" prude victorian love that directors pat themselves on the back for "fixing"? Is this the I have crosses seas to find you or whatever bullshit?

Mina being treated like a thing? Having her arms be almost broken for trying to fight the horrible man who killed the only girl she loved, almost killed her husband, and traumatized her in a scene akin to sexually assaulting her in the middle of the night?

He had been there, and though it could only have been for a few seconds, he made rare hay of the place. All the manuscript had been burned, and the blue flames were flickering amongst the white ashes; the cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire, and the wax had helped the flames.

Is this love? Mina hearing how her hard work, her manuscript she did with her own hands, is now ashes? Having to repeat the traumatic event in front of everyone while repeating how Dracula threatened her with bashing Jonathan's brain in front of her eyes, plunging herself into more shame, then having a religious crisis after Mina is branded with the proof that god itself abandoned her because of the Count's attack?

And so you, like the others, would play your brains against mine. You would help these men to hunt me and frustrate me in my designs! my bountiful wine-press for a while; and shall be later on my companion and my helper.

Mina got called a fucking WINE PRESS for everything that is sacred! On top of being told that her future is being reduced to a companion, to a helper. A shadow with no self autonomy who will roam earth in a hellish existance attatched to a man who doesn't even see her as a human, but an object to be won. The Count hates Mina for her wits, he hates that a woman bested him in a play where she had the upper hand, yet he desires her enough to punish her by erasing everything that makes Mina Harker the woman she is.

Is this what Mina deserves? Is this the forbidden love? Does Mina deserves to be shreded, punished, and reduced to a winning object when she is at the lowest in this book? For what, to symphatize with a conqueror who thinks that it's his right to destroy all of the lives he comes across for his own sick entertaiment?

Where is the soft love that Jonathan expresses for Mina, where is the devotion given to her as she prays to god for an answer.

Oh my God! my God! what have I done? What have I done to deserve such a fate, I who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days. God pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril; and in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!"

Why should Mina suffer because clueless non readers romanticize the trauma that she went through to the point that Mina became suicidal in a single night.

"You would not kill yourself?" he asked, hoarsely. "I would; if there were no friend who loved me, who would save me such a pain, and so desperate an effort!"

If Mina didn't have Jonathan, didn't have Van Helsing and the others, she would have died from pure distress and shame. How horrible is to see Mina push through what happened without truly taking time to see how she is truly blameless in here, and that she should not beg god for forgiveness when that acursed presence left her unprotected to an ancient evil.

[unsolicited-opinions]

On recent far-left attacks on the Anti-Defamation League

Before we start:

- I think the ADL is wrong about Musk's salutes.

- I think the ADL's Israel advocacy sometimes comes into conflict with their mission in the diaspora. I think their methodologies for data collection and reporting need improvement.

- I think that the ADL is flawed, imperfect and does much more good than harm.

---

Christopher Hitchens put into words what academics used to live by:

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence".

The burden of proof is on those making the claim, and the claims of droptheadl.org aren't supported with primary sources or evidence.

For example:

To support its claims about the ADL and SNCC, droptheadl.org offers a link, presenting it as a citation.

This is a link to a Google Books entry. There's no actual text, no citation, no chapter, no page, just the claim that somewhere in this 300-page book exists proof of the ADL denouncing SNCC as racist.

However, that's not in the book. Chapter two talks about this incident in detail, so I read it.

In reaponse to a SNCC newsletter (this is what a primary source looks like!) containing many factual errors about Israel,

...Morris Abram, president of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), summed up their outrage: “Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism whether it comes from the Ku Klux Klan or from extremist Negro groups

[For those who haven't studied the era: at this point, "Negro" was still the word which the black community preferred. The transition to widespread identification as 'black' got going in the 60s and finished in the 70s. The use of the word 'Negro' here is not a slur. I state this in advance because I know how the illiberal left weilds its willful ignorance]

...

Abram was also careful to echo what the ADL had said: that SNCC’s article put it in the same anti-Israeli trench as the Arab world and the Soviet Union.

That's verifiably, unquestionably true. That's the position SNCC took, because that's where they got their information.

Droptheadl.org lied. This book doesn't say what they claim it says, which is why they didn't quote it or offer a specific citation. Why let facts get in the way of the narrative which makes them feel good about themselves?

The book, which I recommend reading, isn't about the ADL. It's a scholarly examination of the relationships between the wars the Arab world launched on Israel and the US Civil Rights Movement. This requires much discussion of the impact on the complex relationships between black communities and Jewish communities in the US in the context of their views on Israel and Palestine.

It's fascinating. Here's another excerpt illustrating why many Jews saw SNCC as taking an antisemitic turn:

One day in May of 1967, [Stokely] Carmichael and [H. Rap] Brown were in Alabama chatting with Donald Jelinek, a lawyer who worked with SNCC.

Jelinek, who was Jewish, expressed his positive feelings about Israel and his concerns about the Jewish state’s situation in that tension-filled month as war clouds were on the horizon in the Middle East.

“So it was a shock to me,” Jelinek later recounted, “when my SNCC friends mildly indicated support for the Arabs.” Mildly stated or not, their sentiments prompted Jelinek to reply, “But they may wipe out and destroy Israel.”

Carmichael adroitly changed the subject with some humor, and the men began laughing.

Jelinek thereafter overheard Brown quietly singing to himself, “arms for the Arabs, sneakers for the Jews.” When Jelinek asked him what that song meant, an embarrassed Brown explained that he had learned the song as a student in Louisiana. It implied that the Israelis would need sneakers (tennis shoes) to run from the Arabs, who were armed with weapons from abroad.

My qualms with this, my disappointment in and disagreement with both Carmichael and Brown doesn't make me a racist. It doesn't make the AJC or the ADL racist and it doesn't make Jelinek, the Jewish lawyer working with SNCC, a racist or a poor ally.

Zionism is the belief that Jews should have self-determination in their homeland.

Nazism was the belief that racially superior Aryans own the world, should be organized through fascist methods, and that the genocide of the Jewish people was explicitly required because they were the source of all evil and the obstacle to progress.

These are not the same. Suggesting they are the same, as Carmichael did, is morally and intellectually bankrupt. Pointing this out doesn't make me a racist. It makes me literate.

I still own a copy of Carmichael's book, Black Power. Carmichael (who later changed his name to Kwame Ture) was a complex person. Like every other historical figure, he was neither a saint nor a demon.

I can admire a lot about the Black Panthers without falsely claiming that nothing they ever did or said was troubling, poorly reasoned, or bigoted. The world is more complex than that.

There are no saints. Learn this important truth and use it to guide your understanding of the world around you. There are no saints.

Gandhi, for instance, was a great leader for Indian self-rule and a visionary of nonviolent protest. He was also a racist as a young man who said black people "...are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals." Read about his work in South Africa. He was also really weird about sex and slept naked with his grand niece, which we rightly recognize today as sexual abuse. He wasn't a saint or a demon, he was a person.

People are complex and flawed. If you want to understand people, history, and movements, wrap your head around this as keep it with you: People and their movements are complex and flawed.

But the depth of reasoning I see from the illiberal left is "ADL criticized SNCC, so they're Nazis."

No, child. The world is much, much more complex than that. Why did you go to college if you weren't going to learn anything there?

My 14yo is right. US leftists (not liberals, leftists) are allergic to nuance and discard the facts contradicting any narrative which makes them feel good about themselves.

Selah

Deep breath in, slow breath out.

The book is really delves into some of the factors contributing to the deteriorating relationship at the time between Jewish Americans and Black Americans. It points to this essay by James Baldwin, titled "Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White." I urge you to read it, it is a fascinating artifact of its time and place.

And this:

Jews had long advocated for black liberation by, for example, playing a role in the foundation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Jewish support for blacks was well known; as early as February of 1942, the American Jewish Committee published a study titled “Jewish Contribution to Negro Welfare.” Having experienced the sting of anti-Semitism, many Jews believed they were fighting in the same trench against discrimination alongside African Americans. When the civil rights struggle grew to become a mass movement in the 1950s and early 1960s, Jewish moral and financial support was crucial, and Jews were disproportionately well-represented among those whites who lent their support to the cause. Jewish financial contributions to civil rights groups were also significant. Jews even were the subject of criticism from some southern whites for the high-profile role they played in helping blacks win their freedom. All this compounded a sense of betrayal by SNCC that was felt by many Jewish Americans.

It should not be surprising or taken as racist that Jews objected to SNCC's advocacy against Israel's existence and I maintain that any call for Israel to be destroyed is innately, inarguably antisemitic. No other nation endures calls for its destruction. Just the Jewish one.

There was unquestionably tension between SNCC and the entire spectrum of non-black Americans who supported SNCC when SNCC ejected non-black members. From our perspective, decades removed, I can understand both why SNCC members narrowly voted for this AND why non-black members of SNCC were hurt and disillusioned. All of those perspectives were (and are) valid.

When I was an undergrad studying African American Political Thought, we discussed these tensions head-on, using primary sources, and evaluated them dispassionately.

We concluded that there are no villains in this story. SNCC got a bunch of facts wrong about Israel, their staunch Jewish allies were profoundly disappointed, saw hypocrisy in SNCC's position, and said so.

I think that far left Americans overlaid their feelings about a domestic struggle on a foreign one where they don't fit...and then discarded the facts and the complexity which got in the way of a satisfying narrative which made them feel like the good guys instead of forcing them to grapple with an uncomfortably complex reality.

I think that's what the illiberal left still does. It doesn't like complexity, it doesn't like academic rigor, it likes stories it can tell itself about its moral purity and discards facts, complexity, or rigor which threaten their view of themselves as saviors.

The world is complex. People are complex. Movements are complex. Organizations are complex. History is complex. Justice is complex.

The ADL isn't perfect, its leaders haven't been and are not saints or tzadikim, but the good they do for all Americans radically outweighs their failings and I'm going to keep supporting them while yelling at them to do better.

If you're an ADL hater and have any actual evidence and primary sources on racism from the ADL, I really want to see it, because this weak sauce from droptheadl.org doesn't make the case the illiberal left thinks it makes. And they'd know that if they had learned anything in college about how scholarship works and how arguments are constructed.

The illiberal left perhaps forgets how the ADL responded when Trump called for requiring American Muslims to register.

“If one day Muslim Americans will be forced to register their identities, then that is the day that this proud Jew will register as a Muslim. ”

- ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt

[thedissonantverses]

Mere Anarachy is Loosed Upon the World

Or Dragon Age Origins, Cosmic Horror, and Post-Modernism(Part 2)

Wanted to get this done before the holiday kicks in for those of you that have it tough this time of year. I'll apologize in advance but I'm writing this with the perspective of you having played DA Origins. If you haven't read the first part I strongly suggest you do if you're a novice on post-modernism.

With all that out of the way, let's start with...well, the origins. I think we can make a strong argument that how Dragon Age as a series handles game design is part of what makes it work so well as a post-modern text. Each origin story offers a different version of the truth, with the only commonality being Duncan. We'll circle back to Duncan a little later.

What it comes down to is choice. Choose a commoner dwarf versus a noble and you'll have an entirely different perspective on what being a dwarf even means. Choose a Dalish elf versus a city elf and they're entirely different worlds. Choose a mage versus another class and we start running into the horror of existence in this universe pretty fast. What's the most interesting is whether or not you choose that background, it happens anyways. There is a Cousland or a Brosca out there that went through the horrible things your Warden did, but they don't meet Duncan. You doom the others by not choosing them. The fate you were rescued from becomes their reality.

Which is the true Hero of Fereleden? They all are.

Then we meet Duncan. The fixed point. The monster and the hero. The blighted and the one who blights. The Grey Warden.

Let's talk about unreliable narration real quick. See the narration gets unreliable when the narrator themselves doesn't have all of the information or is lying directly and through omission. As no one knows everything, even if I pretend that I do, by choosing to narrate you're already telling only part of the story. We see it with the origins first, then Duncan.

What we don't learn until it's too late, is every Grey Warden is lying to you. They're not here to save your life. They're here for soldiers in a war that never ends and has been shaping Thedas long before you were even a thought. What you were matters to you, but it doesn't matter to them. They are the great uniters of Thedas in that they only have one end they must achieve no matter what the cost. Forget what came before. Forget the scars and pain and anguish of what you were before. The blight ate your past the moment you drank from the chalice and it's hungry for more.

Cosmic horror is a genre of fiction that deals with fear of the unknown and the unknowable. Reality is eroding around us and there are some secrets better left buried from humanity for the rest of time. It deals with the viscous nature of our darker hearts. It's nihilistic and while I don't subscribe to nihilism myself, it's great for digging into the most visceral depiction of post-modern thinking. Check out Old God of Appalachia for a good cosmic horror podcast that take place in one of my favorite parts of the country. They don't shy away from tackling racial tensions and what amounted to legal slavery in the region and how that's shaped its history.

Speaking of which, we can't get around Lovecraft's racism. He was a virulent colonialist of the worst kind, and it showed up in works. Pretty fitting actually when we're talking about the corruption of the fabric of reality. If you want a decent, funny, entry level cosmic horror I recommend John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin. This article is a really great read on this topic as well. Unfortunately, genre fiction tends to heavily trend towards coding with racism and antisemitism and it's something that overshadows it today. DA is guilty of this as well, with the most relevant Origins example coding the elves as indigenous peoples. Thankfully, they've pulled away from that more and more over the years, but it's baked into the foundation, and I'd like to acknowledge that here.

The darkspawn, their blood, and the blight are a great example of cosmic horror. People are corrupted when they drink darkspawn blood. They are overtaken. It changes their perception of reality. They can sense the horrors in a way they never could before. To fight the blight, you must become it. You must sacrifice your future or else sacrifice the world's. This becomes very, painfully literal if you want to save your Warden's life. You must choose once more, knowing all of these things have happened and all of them are happening. Complete a dark ritual, the results of which you may never see but will have ramifications beyond your ken. Sacrifice a friend-knowing he still has a life left to live or perform a Grey Warden's most profound act yourself and kill the archdemon and in so doing, die.

You are the horror. Dare you live, knowing the evil you carry inside? What happens when you can no longer fight it? You didn't just look into the Void; you brought it with you.

Combine cosmic horror with unreliable narration and dreaded fate and you get Ostagar. You get a man named Ser Loghain. But is he a Warden, a traitor, or father trying to ensure his daughter's future?

Yes.

How Loghain as presented is a righteous bastard but also completely rational and empathetic is an example of great character writing. Dragon Age will never tell you rather he is wrong or right. Even in Inquisition, Solas see both sides of Ostagar and both are what happened at Ostagar. Loghain the tragic hero and Loghain the protective father and Loghain the man who betrayed his king are all Loghain.

Every party member, even Alistair, is skilled at shading the truth. But Loghain is the purest example of post-modernism applied to a character in Origins. The Landsmeet is one of those confluences of fate that one longs for fiction, another fixed point where you decide the fate of a country, and who are you?

When I died love, when I died,

my heart was broken in your care;

I never suffered love so fair,

and now so I suffer and abide

when I died love, when I died.

When I died, love, when I died

I wearied in an endless maze.

that men have walked for centuries,

as endless as the gate was wide

When I died love, when I died.

When I died love, when I died

ether was a war in the upper air;

all that happens, happens there;

there was an angel by my side,

when I died, love, when I died. -"A Western Ballad" Allen Ginsberg.

At the end of their journey, the Hero of Ferelden can either embrace death, or perform the dark ritual and live. They've accepted the horrors inside them, why not once more?

We're going to end our examination of Origins here. Not because there isn't much, much more I could talk about, but because there are characters and themes I want to cover in Awakening and DA2. That's right, adding a bonus part. Please message or comment or reblog or argue with me, particularly if you felt like I forgot something. This is meant as academic exercise if anything. For now, remember the horrors persist but so do we.

[385bookreviews]

1.190.2 Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler

SPOILERS

Pages: 406

Time Read: 8 hours and 29 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4★

Genre: Adult Dystopian

TWs for the book: Ableism, addiction, adult/minor relationships, blood, child abuse, classism, colonization, confinement, death, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, fire, forced institutionalization, gaslighting, grief, gun violence, hate crimes, homophobia, injury, kidnapping, lesbophobia, mass shooting, mental illness, brain injury, miscarriage, misogyny/sexism, murder, outing, p*d*ph*l*a, physical abuse, police brutality, pregnancy, racism, r*pe, religious bigotry, mental breaks, self harm, SA, s*xual harassment, s*xual violence, slavery, su*c*dal thoughts/attempts, su*c*de, torture, trafficking, violence, abandonment, child death, chronic illness, cursing, death of parents, death of spouse, drug abuse, excrement, genocide, gore, medical content, panic attacks, war, vomit, abortion, alcohol, antisemitism, islamophobia, cannibalism, incest, infertility, infidelity, deportation, dysphoria, stalking, xenophobia

POV: First person

Time Period/Location: California, Oregon, and Washington from 2032-2090

First Line: They'll make a god of her.

Storyline: This book was really hard to get through. While there aren't very many graphic, on page descriptions of violence, the psychological aspect of it all is hard to grapple with. It was definitely interesting going from Parable of the Sower and only getting Lauren's perspective to suddenly having her daughter's view of her as a manipulative cult leader who abandoned her and sacrificed her family for Earthseed. It definitely made you ponder whether or not Lauren was a good person, and there was no clear answer at the end, leaving you to draw your own conclusions about her.

Representation: Lauren is bisexual, Allie is a lesbian, and Marcos is gay. There are many characters ranging across all races and with numerous disabilities.

Summary: While the first book was important and relevant to our time, Parable of the Talents was even more terrifying with its social commentary and the light it shines on zealous Christianity. A hard read, but definitely worth it.

Quotes: -"We caused the problems: then we sat and watched as they turned into crises." (p.4) -"It seems inevitable that people who can't read are going to lean more toward judging candidates on the way they look and sound than on what they claim they stand for. Even people who can read and are educated are apt to pay more attention to good looks and seductive lies than they should." (p.16) -"Interesting that they fear Edward Jay Smith's supposed incompetence more than they fear Jarret's obvious tyranny." (p.22) -"Beware: At war or at peace, more people die of unenlightened self-interest than of any other disease." (p.77)

Complete Recap: The book opens with writings from Lauren's daughter, sometime in the future after Lauren's death. She doesn't feel fondly of her mother, and doesn't believe in Earthseed. She is going through her writings to try to understand her after her death, and also some of her father's writings. The next entry is some of Bankole's entries, and he talks briefly of "the Pox", short for the apocalyptic time of 2015-2030. Lauren's daughter (later revealed to be named Asha) remarks that her father seems to have wanted to protect her mother, but that Lauren was too focused on her goals and didn't want to be protected. September 26, 2032: Lauren and the rest of Earthseed celebrate Acorn's 5th year anniversary. She has had a dream in which she is back in a church service in her living room. Her father is preaching, and she is sitting between her brothers, Keith and Marcus, to keep them from fighting. Keith disappears, and is replaced by Lauren's mother, who died giving birth to her. She remains facing forward so Lauren can't fully see her face. She hears her father recite the parable of the talents from Matthew, and her mother disappears. Then everyone disappears until Lauren is left alone in the ashes of the burned down house. She wakes alone in her bed. The Dovetree farm, a family near them that grew weed and brewed alcohol, was attacked and everyone was killed except for two of the women and three of the children. Bankole is up treating them. Lauren wonders what and who caused the attack, as crime had been decreasing in recent years. Aubrey, one of the surviving women, had told Lauren that the men were like soldiers, attacking uniformly, killing and burning their things, and that they all wore black tunics with white crosses on their chests. Lauren suspects that this is the work of the most recent presidential nominee, Andrew Steele Jarret. He is a Texas Senator who started his own church called the Church of Christian America, and preaches that people committing what fits into his definitions of sin are at fault for the state of the country. His followers carry out burnings of "witches", which basically means anyone who isn't a part of the Christian American church. Asha's Notes: She lists all four children, four men, and five women who started Earthseed: Lauren and Bankole, Harry and Zahra, Travis, Natividad, and Dominic, Allie and Justin, and Grayson, Emery, Doe, and Tori. She talks about how they built the place up and learned trades, and Lauren taught those who didn't know how to read and write. Lauren also insisted on schooling for the children, and Bankole was gradually able to gain the trust of those in the surrounding area and treat those outside of the community as well. Asha never got to meet her father.

September 27, 2032: Lauren and three others from the community go out to an abandoned house to scavenge some agave for the community's thorn wall. When they arrive, an armored housetruck opens fire on them, and later on some other people wandering by. They hide, and are about to escape, but they hear a child crying, and Lauren runs around the truck. She finds a man, woman, and teenage boy all badly beaten, shot, and unconscious, a sleeping little girl, and a crying little girl. They comfort the children and drive the housetruck back to Acorn. Bankole immediately begins to try and save the woman and the boy, but the man is already dead. September 29, 2032: Bankole is angry with Lauren for risking her life to get the housetruck. He wants them to move out of Acorn and into a proper town so they can be safe, but Lauren refuses to abandon Acorn or Earthseed. Bankole's Writings: Bankole doesn't believe in Earthseed himself, and he is worried by Lauren's determinedness to stick with it. Asha's Notes: Asha criticizes Earthseed and once again expresses her disbelief in any religion. She says that Lauren's middle name, Oya, was the Orisha of the Niger River, bringer of great change. October 4, 2032: Krista Noyer, the woman they found in the housetruck, died. Dan Noyer Jr., her son, will recover. October 17, 2032: They hold a funeral for Krista and Dan Sr. Noyer now that Dan Jr. is well enough to attend. Kassia and Mercy, the two little girls, are well enough. They are now a community of 67. The Noyer family was attempting to make the trip from Phoenix, Arizona up to Alaska, which seceded from the USA, in the housetruck. Krista, Dan Sr., Dan Jr., 15, Kassia, 7, Mercy, 8, Nina, 12, and Paula, 13, had parked their truck to let it charge in the sun. Dan Sr., Krista, and Dan Jr. were shot by a group of men. Kassia and Mercy hid in the truck, which was impossible to get into once locked. Nina and Paula were r*ped and abducted. Dan Jr., also shot, managed to drag his parents into the truck once Mercy and Kassia opened the doors, before succumbing to his injuries. They were like that for three days until Lauren and her little group found them. The group gets in touch with people they know to keep on the lookout for Nina and Paula. The children bury their parents' ashes with along with oak tree seedlings. Bankole's Writings: Bankole ponders about the redwood trees dying due to climate change. Asha's Notes: Asha describes her father as a loving pessimist, and her mother as a reluctant optimist. She says Lauren "worked hard at seducing people" and that if all she had done was start Acorn and not Earthseed, she would have been admirable. October 24, 2032: The community holds a Gathering to welcome Adela Ortiz's baby. Travis proposes using the housetruck to expand their businesses, and the community debates on it and ultimately votes to. Lauren discusses Earthseed with Dan, as he has a lot of questions about it, and she comforts him when he breaks down about his parents and sisters.

November 7, 2032: Despite their isolation, Lauren does her best to keep up with the events of the world. Alaska, now its own country, makes an alliance with Russia and Canada. Kenya and Tanzania are at war, Bolivia and Peru dispute their borders, Pakistan and Afghanistan start a religious war against India, Spain and China both are in civil war, Greece and Turkey are about to go to war, and Egypt and Libya are already at war. Three years prior, Iran and Iraq had launched nuclear missiles at each other, but that hadn't happened again. A rich boy in Texas ran away from home and ended up becoming a slave to a pimp, forced to do what he was told by wearing a slave collar that delivered pain without ever harming the body. The boy's father paid a lot of money to have him found, and that is the only reason this modern day slavery was even making it into the news. Life was found on Mars, further reaffirming Lauren's Destiny. The space program is almost completely privatized now thanks to President Donner. The first baby born of an artificial womb was born healthy in Australia. Jarret won the election. November 14, 2032: Lauren discovers she is pregnant after two years of trying. December 5, 3032: Christian America announces they will be opening homeless shelters and orphanages. December 17, 2032: Five of the group, Bankole, Lauren, Dan, Travis, and Natividad go to Eureka to get supplies. They then go to a squatter settlement called Georgetown to follow up on a lead about Nina Noyer. The George family owns and runs a complex of several businesses, and the matriarch, Dolores, called in the tip. Lauren brings fruit for her, and she points Lauren to a pimp named Cougar. He takes Lauren out to see the children for sale, and the girl that is supposed to be Nina. It isn't her, but Lauren is shocked to see her brother Marcus, alive and for sale. She buys him immediately, and they return back to Acorn. Marcus is submissive and quiet, seeming to not believe his circumstances. Bankole works on him and he had three infections and burn scars covering his body. Dan Noyer runs away on his own to try and find his sisters. Asha's Notes: Asha takes note how different Lauren and Marcus were. He hated the chaos and she embraced it. Asha says that they were both zealots in their own ways.

December 18, 2032: Dan hasn't come home, and they leave notes with people they know to keep an eye out for him as well as for Nina and Paula. Marcus slept through the night without making a run for it, and joins Lauren for breakfast. She tells him that Harry and Zahra are alive, and confirms that Marcus' former girlfriend when they lived in Robledo, Robin, is dead. Marcus confirms that Cory, Bennet, and Greg are dead for sure. Men from the town of Halstead come to ask Bankole to help them, as they experienced an earthquake that destroyed several homes and killed their doctor. He leaves to help them. Marcus tells Lauren what happened the night their neighborhood burned. Him, his brothers, and Cory were all gunned down by the arsonists. He was shot but not killed, but the rest of his family had bullets put through their heads. Then they were grabbed and tossed into a burning house. Marcus was burned and shot, but managed to escape, and lay out on the yard. He was rescued by a man and his wife, also with the last name Duran like his mother Cory. They nursed him back to health and squatted in Robledo for four years. Marcus used to preach to the other squatters, and they saw him as sort of a pastor. But with new government officials in place, they led a huge police raid to clear out the squatters and burn/knock down the homes and buildings they squatted in. The Durans went missing, and Marcus wasn't able to find them again. His first night walking north on the freeway he was jumped, r*ped, and then sold to a pimp, going through three of them and wearing a slave collar the whole time before Lauren bought his freedom. She tells him about Earthseed and how they came to be there, he accuses her of starting a cult, saying he had heard a local politician publicly denouncing them. After their conversation, she takes him to see Harry and Zahra. December 19, 2032: Lauren's brother requests to be called Marcos Duran instead of Marcus Olamina. He tells her he's not the same person he was. December 22, 2032: Bankole returns from Halstead and tries to convince Lauren to move there, as they've offered him a job and a house, and her a job as a teacher. She continues to refuse. January 16, 2033: Bankole and Lauren go to visit Halstead, staying with the family who's house they would be taking over if they decide to move there. The family there now is moving to Siberia to start a better life. Once their back home, Bankole and Lauren don't talk much. Marc tells her that she should go, and is a fool for not. Grayson, Zahra, Jorge, and Diamond all question Lauren about whether or not she is leaving, as Marcos told everyone that she was. January 20, 2033: Jarret was inaugurated, giving a fire and brimstone sermon as his speech. February 6, 2033: Marcos decides to give his own sermon at the Gathering, attempting to convince everyone that the real, Christian God never changes. Lauren warned him beforehand that the group would ask questions and debate, picking apart his sermon, but Marcos is confident in his abilities. This is exactly what the group does to him though, even those like Zahra who don't necessarily fully believe in Earthseed, and this breaks him down a bit. February 19, 2033: President Jarret means to start a war to get Alaska back in the union. February 28, 2033: Marcos tries to speak at the Gathering for the third time and continues to get picked apart, but he is gaining confidence, questioning the Earthseed Destiny and calling it nonsense. March 6, 2033: Marcos leaves Acorn, along with the Peralta family. The Peralta family agrees with President Jarret's idea for war and a draft, but Lauren suspects that they just want to disassociate themselves from the "cult" in case things get bad.

March 17, 2033: Dan Noyer came back with his sister Nina. Zahra spotted the two of them running up to the camp, seemingly being chased, and shortly the five pursuers with guns revealed themselves. She sends out a warning and Harry, Lauren, and Bankole take the housetruck to gun down the intruders. Zahra asks where the two others she saw went, and after a search, they find Dan and Nina. Both are injured, beaten, and had been r*ped. Nina says she got pregnant but had a miscarriage. March 18, 2033: Bankole tried his best to save Dan but he died. Nina says that her older sister Paula is dead. Asha's Notes: Asha writes that her Uncle Marc would have never made it at Acorn, and left due to his political and religious disagreements. She wonders to herself if her mother even really paid attention to being pregnant with her. During this time, the group acquired another housetruck and began to have flourishing business, which allowed Lauren to dream about starting more communities and naming them after plants. July 22, 2033: Two days prior on July 20, Lauren gave birth to her daughter Larkin Beryl Ife Olamina Bankole. She shares a birthday with both Lauren, and Lauren's father. Bankole is thrilled. July 24, 2033: Larkin is Welcomed into the community and Harry and Zahra are made her godparents.

July 30, 2033: Bankole and Lauren discuss moving again, and the purpose of Earthseed. Lauren finally convinces him to stay and Bankole finds the motivation to try to build up Acorn into a more modern and sustainable place for the sake of his daughter. September 26, 2033: The same people that raided the Dovetree farm, Jarret's Crusaders, raid Acorn with seven tanks known as maggots. Lauren sends out a signal for everyone to run, but they are surrounded, and all hit with a paralyzing gas. Men take Larkin away from Lauren and dump all of the women into a room at the school, and all of the men into a different one. While they're still paralyzed, the men put slave collars around their necks. Lauren learns later that Grayson Mora had refused to be a slave again, and used the housetruck to fire on the men and the maggots, damaging some. As they rained fire on him, he rammed the housetruck into one of the maggots, causing an explosion and killing him. Lauren checks in with the women of the group. Justin had been taken from Allie. Adela's baby, Emery's sons, and Noriko's children had also been taken. Tori and Doe Mora, now 14 and 15, were in the room with them. Nina Noyer was there but Mercy and Kassia were either taken by the men or ushered into hiding by the woman who was taking care of them, May, as she wasn't there either. Several other women all had their children taken. Catherine's husband Vincent hit his head on a rock as he fell from the gas, and she says he is dead. Teresa Lin decides to dive out the open window, but immediately begins screaming from the pain the slave collar is inflicting on her for leaving the boundaries of the room. No one came to get her, and she screamed and passed out repeatedly all night. Diamond discovers someone dead, and Lauren is horrified to realize it is Zahra, her best friend. Zahra was very small for a grown woman, and Lauren suspects the gas was too much and killed her. When they wake in the morning, they see their captors building a fence around the compound. Lauren instructs the women to go along with what they're told to do, and to gather as much information as they can. She tells them to be prepared for the inevitability of r*pe. In the afternoon, a man finally comes and tells Allie and Lauren to get Teresa's body. When Lauren mentions that Zahra is also dead, she is lashed with the collar. When Allie tries to help her up, she is also lashed. They carry the bodies out and are forced to dig graves for them in rocky soil. The other women and the men are brought out to watch, and Travis, Lucio, and Ted also began to dig graves. Before the bodies were fully buried, they made everyone parade by the open graves to see their dead. Harry learned of Zahra's death, and Lucio of Teresa's. On the men's side, Vincent, Grayson, and Bankole all died as well. Lauren is knocked unconscious by the slave collar for trying to kill one of the men with a pickaxe.

Asha's Notes: Asha writes that she misses Acorn, even though she has no memory of ever being there. She confirms that Zahra was killed by the gas, as it will harm anyone small who isn't given the antidote. Asha was given it along with the other children after they were taken from Acorn. November 24, 2033: It is Thanksgiving, which gives Lauren time to document what's been happening. The children are still missing, and they've been told by their captors that they've been given away to be raised in good Christian American homes. The group has been doing whatever is told of them, including praising God and testifying. Regardless of this, they are tortured and underfed. They are not allowed to mix between men and women, and they claim that none of them are properly married. This doesn't stop the men from r*ping the women, the first being Diamond. When Emery Mora was taken away to be r*ped, she killed the two men and then killed herself. Lauren suspects Emery would have killed more, but because of the collar, she couldn't leave the cabin, and the master control unit for all the collars was being kept in one of the maggots. All of the women were tortured for what Emery did. The Crusaders expanded the area, what they started calling Camp Christian, now bringing in people off the streets to be "reeducated". They are worked like slaves to expand the building they are held captive in, and are forced to burn all of their books, papers, and sentimental items. Thankfully, all of their legal documents and Lauren's writings are stashed away in hidden caches in the mountains. Lauren is able to have a whispered conversation with Harry out in the fields and he says that when they tried to lash Bankole to make an example of him, he had a seizure and died. Asha's Notes: Asha was taken to a reeducation camp where she was cared for in the nursery before being adopted out to Christian American parents. They renamed her from Larkin to Asha Vere, her namesake being a Christian Dreammask character who saved people from heathens. She became Asha Alexander after being taken in by Madison and Kayce, a couple who had been displaced from Seattle during the Al-Can war, the war Jarret started against Canada to get Alaska back in the union. They didn't love her, but took her in out of duty. December 4, 2033: The Crusaders mostly leave them all alone on Sundays, which is when Lauren writes. Mary Sullivan, a girl from one of the neighboring families that was also rounded up, starts sleeping with Allie. One woman that was a squatter has been enjoying tormenting the other women, but the Earthseed women held her captive for a night and used her own collar to torture her, and she leaves them alone now.

December 11, 2033: More strangers have been brought in. Some of them are sharers, but the Earthseed sharers have kept from revealing their weakness. One of the new people is a man named David, wanting to go by Day. He had been staying a homeless shelter run by Christian America, and when a few others robbed the place, him and all the other black men were accused based off race and snatched up. He was charged as a vagrant and was supposed to work for 30 days, but it had been two months and they had no intention to free him. He says that most people don't know about the camps. December 25, 2033: Lauren was r*ped twice. Because she is a sharer, she experienced not only her own pain, but also her r*pist's pleasure. She resolves to stop bathing and make herself as undesirable as possible to keep it from happening again. Asha's Notes: She writes that Lauren's entire record of 2034 was lost, and she only has the 2033 and 2035 writings. By speaking to people that were there at the camp during 2034, Asha learns that there was an escape attempt led by Day and that no one from Earthseed participated. Most of the rebels were killed, and Day was hung. Even though the people of Earthseed dropped to the ground the second everything started, everyone was punished by working 16 hours a day for three days straight doing intense physical labor. Tori and Doe Mora accidentally revealed themselves as sharers, and were r*ped more often than anyone after being discovered. During the time this all happened, it was illegal, but there were loopholes in the law and a general lack of awareness and attention that allowed it to happen anyways. The Al-Can war came to nothing, Alaska got to keep its independence and a bunch of people died for no reason, which killed Jarret's popularity. Asha's adopted parents still loved him, even though the bombings in Seattle had killer their daughter Kamaria, who Asha grew up being constantly compared to. Kayce always seemed bitter towards her, while Madison, her adopted father, took every chance he could since she was young to feel her up. February 25, 2035: Earthseed begins to plan a rebellion, even if it will cost them their lives. Allie is suffering from brain damage after a the Faircloth sisters outed her and Mary Sullivan for being gay at a church service. Mary died from the torture from the collar, and Allie is left not able to talk and being very slow. The Faircloth girls are given a room separate from the other women and are allowed to just work in the kitchen. They make the food worse for the other women. Cristina, Noriko, Tori, and Doe are made to often visit a cabin and they believe the master control unit for the collars is there, so they plan to destroy it if they can the next time they are forced there. February 28, 2035: A landslide happens during a storm, destroying the cabin that had the master control unit and a maggot. Everyone escapes and kills the Crusaders there, and the men and women from Earthseed reunite, grab what they can, and run after burning the place to the ground. Asha's Notes: The Crusaders divided up the siblings of Earthseed when they split everyone up. It worked for some but not for others. The Faircloth boys were split up; one became a Christian American preacher and the other rejected it. One of the Castro children committed su*c*de. Asha fully grew up with the Alexanders. They didn't love her, but they tried to turn her into a good Christian American, sending her to a CA school for her whole life. She learned to make herself quiet and unnoticeable and stay out of the way.

March 4, 2035: Earthseed escapes into the mountains and rests for the night in a cave where one of their caches was hidden. The hand and foot prints of Tori and Doe's brothers, Adela's baby, and Harry and Zahra's children were there as well. Harry and Lauren fell asleep sobbing with each other, as did Travis and Natividad and Tori and Doe. Lucio and Adela slept together, as did Jorge and Diamond, Michael and Noriko, and Aubrey and Nina. Lauren announces that the group must separate off into smaller groups and leave each other. There are protests to this, but it is ultimately agreed they have a worse chance of being spotted all together, and set up a rendezvous point in a redwood forest. Doe is pregnant, and Natividad and Travis agree to take her and Tori with them. Adela (who is also pregnant), Lucio, and Lucio's sister form a group. Nina, Allie, Harry, and Lauren join together. They gather the rest of their supplies from the other caches and hold one last gathering before splitting off. Lauren and her group decide to go to Georgetown, and Allie begins talking again. Asha's Notes: Asha writes that her first memory was of find a doll in her backyard when she was three. Kayce smacked her for touching it, and burned it in the backyard and made Asha watch. She still has panic attacks upon seeing dolls years later. March 28, 2035: Harry works for the George family, Allie cleans up around the George's businesses, and Lauren teaches children who to read and write and sketches portraits of people. While walking back to her hotel room one day, she is stopped by a beaten boy that turns out to be Allie's son Justin. He escaped his abusive Christian American home and had been trying to find his way back to Acorn. Lauren very lightly explains to Justin that Bankole is dead when he asks, and then gently tells him that Allie has some amnesia still. She remembers her son though, and they are reunited. The only information Justin is able to tell them about the other kids is that their names have been changed and that the siblings were split up. Lauren tried to go to the police about Larkin, but that was ultimately useless. Harry leaves and goes south alone on rumors of an orphanage where the kids might be being held. Allie plans on staying in Georgetown and Nina is in love with one of the George boys. April 8, 2035: Lauren departs from Georgetown, disguised as a man and on her own to try and find her daughter April 15, 2035: Lauren is in Eureka doing house and yard work for people in exchange for meals or a place to sleep. She ends up sleeping in the park some nights. May 13, 2035: Lauren made herself visit the Christian America shelter three times. The first time she is panicky and isn't able to pay any attention to anything. The second time she goes in, the man who comes to preach at them after their meal is her brother Marcos. He talks about his heathen sister without realizing she is in the crowd of men he's talking to. She leaves a note asking to speak with him. May 14, 2035: Lauren talks with her brother. She tells him what happened to Acorn and Larkin and begs him for help to find her. Marcos is in denial about Christian America doing this to children and hits Lauren before walking away. June 3, 2035: Lauren goes back to the CA center dressed as a woman this time, hoping to leave a message with Marcos. The woman informs him that he has moved to Portland, and a guard stops her to give her a letter addressed from him. He tells her that she should join the church to try and get her daughter back. On her way back from the CA center she is attacked by two men and stabs one of them, causing her to flee town and go back to Georgetown. Asha's Notes: Asha writes about her life as a teenager. She dealt with being groped by Madison, punished for writing out a simple Dreamask scenario that wasn't about God, and punched a girl in the jaw so hard she broke it. Kayce talked about her behind her back relentlessly.

June 10, 2035: Allie manages to convince Lauren to take a 19 year old girl named Len up to Portland with her. She was kidnapped and pimped out but when she escaped and tried to return to her rich parents, they had moved to Alaska without telling her. She is also a sharer, and although she is spooked when Lauren notices it about her, she ultimately agrees to go with her. Asha's Notes: Asha left the Alexander home when she was 19. She tried to stay in the CA church but everyone thought she was a prostitute, leaving home on he town without being married, so she left that too. She was living with a single mother and nannying her kids, and then decided to go and see Reverend Marcos Duran speak. While there, a woman comes to get her, and takes her to Marcos, who tells her that she is his niece and that her parents are dead. Marcos takes her in from then on. June 19, 2035: Lauren and Belen stop at a woman's house, located far off the road. It is a nice house with land and a garden that the older woman tends on her own. She is wary of Lauren and Belen at first, but ultimately agrees to let them do some work in her garden and around her place for a few days in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Lauren gradually works on converting her to Earthseed, and realizes that she is bisexual. She ultimately convinces the woman to look after any children that Lauren might bring her, and her and Len move on. Asha's Notes: Asha was able to go to school thanks to Marcos, and lived in upstate New York at one of his houses and worked to make Dreamask scenarios. Marcos was gay but couldn't have a relationship with a man due to his religion, so he never married or had kids. As Earthseed gained popularity as a cult, Asha asked Marcos about it, but he told her to stop looking into it. She didn't though, and did a lot of research, thinking that they were very selfish for wanting to go to space with everything going on on Earth. July 29, 2035: Lauren and Len stay in Portland, gathering followers and staying with nice people. Lauren speaks with Marcos again, but he is cruel and refuses to believe what she says about the church. Allie and Justin come up from Georgetown to live with them in Portland. September 30, 2035: Lauren sends for Natividad and Travis, having found people to house them. Her and Len are beginning to be invited to preach at people's homes, and also offered money and resources. November 13, 2035: Lauren convinces Harry to come north with the three orphans he has picked up on his travels. Earthseed: The First Book of the Living is made available online for people to read. December 30, 2035: Lauren has been invited to speak at conferences, being flown on planes and travelling around the country to do so.

Asha's Notes: Earthseed spread across the globe, and Lauren spent her whole life travelling across to all of the different communities. When Asha was 34, she decided she wanted to meet her and began to do more research. She discovers that Lauren spoke out about what happened to Larkin. CA sued her, and she countersued, and they ended up paying her off, but she hadn't been able to find her because CA had destroyed all of the records to cover their own asses. Asha puts the pieces together and realizes that she is probably Lauren's daughter and calls Marcos. He asks her to wait till she gets home, but she goes to Red Spruce, the community Lauren was resting at to meet her. Everyone refuses to let her see Lauren at first, claiming she's resting, but Asha finally gets ahold of her aide, Harry's adopted son, Edison Balter. He brings her to Lauren and they do a DNA test to confirm that she is her daughter. They talked, and Lauren is enraged to learn that Marcos had been hiding Asha from her this entire time. This makes Asha upset because she loves her Uncle Marc. They exchange life stories, and Asha feels as though Lauren didn't try hard enough to find her. She lets slip that Marcos had found her when she was two years old but had left her alone until she was older and this enrages Lauren all over again. Asha decides she wants to leave and Lauren begs her to keep in touch. She goes home and talks to Marcos and he says he felt alone and didn't want to share her with Lauren. Lauren never saw or spoke to him again. Lauren lived to be 81, just in time to see the first shuttles leaving earth. Justin was on the ship, as well as one of the Faircloth boys, the Mora girls and their children, and the living remainder of Travis and Natividad's family. July 20, 2090: Lauren describes seeing the shuttle leave with Harry and the children of her friends. Her and Harry's bodies will be buried on whatever new planet her followers discover. Asha doesn't come to the launch because she's caring for Marcos after another heart transplant. Lauren says she'll never forgive him for stealing her daughter from her.

[deskgirl]

I want to take a sec to talk about the D&D post. It’s important to get the facts, and it’s important to balance out skepticism and good faith. In this case, I think I made a mistake the first time I reblogged debunking OP. I could have waited longer for more information. I could have seen what the OP would say in their own defense. I definitely should have asked myself what’s “more likely,” which is why I think the version of the post I reblogged this time is correct. What’s more likely: that someone wouldn’t be open about their faith or that they would lie for the sake of one post discussing antisemitism? It’s certainly probable that they make inside jokes with their friends about their own identity because we all have. What’s more likely: that someone would lie about online harassment or that a couple of assholes would see an opportunity to flood their inbox with bigoted anon hate with no cosequences? Given the last decade I’ve spent on this site, I can tell you the answer to that one. What’s more likely: that OP is just trying to get people off their back, or that OP gave a thoughtful reply acknowledging their poor handling of the topic while sharing facts and asking for our understanding because they’re sincere? And on top of that, it is likely that a decades-old massive tabletop game would have a tactless reference to Judaism that would later be removed because down the road someone on the team realized it was wrong. We can’t know what the intention was behind the original entry, but we can acknowledge that it was there.

I couldn’t have known when I reblogged what the truth was, but I choose to believe that this is all miscommunication and misunderstanding and the actions of game creators unaware of the tropes they were playing into at the time they made their game. No one is at fault here. We were all on the defensive, afraid to be wrong, not wanting to hurt people, but inevitably doing just that.

And if anyone felt uncomfortable with me reblogging the debunk version of that post, know that I never want to hurt or alienate anyone. I will make mistakes. I will never intentionally discriminate or attack someone. I will continue to try to educate myself. I do want this to be a safe space.

I still stand by the belief that you should feel safe discussing topics that make you uncomfortable with your gaming group. We have the internet now. We aren’t forced to play with that one jerk down the street because no one else does D&D. You deserve to hang with people who will respect you.

Finally, I did delete the old version of the post I reblogged. I don’t want anyone to stumble across it in a year and be misinformed.

[redorblue]

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

I was going to keep this blog Corona-free, but I read a book that I want to talk about and that touches on the current situation, so I decided to make an exception. The book is called Future home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich, and before I start gushing I might add that in the light of current events, the atmosphere especially in the first part can be a bit upsetting. I’m still not quite sure why I decided to pick up a book about the end of the world in the first place. But I’m glad that I did, because it’s just so good.

The story is about Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a young Ojibwe woman who was adopted and raised by a white couple. At the beginning of the book, she is about four months pregnant, which she sees as an opportunity to reconnect with her biological mother and assorted family members. That first meeting is a work of art on its own: it perfectly encompasses the entire spectrum of emotions that such a meeting might provoke, from instant connection and familiarity over awkwardness and stiffness to a feeling of complete alienation because of the stark difference in social class, and the scene jumps wildly between all of them. These dynamics alone would make the story work, but it’s also set in a not-very-distant future that quickly devolves into a dystopia. There are references to climate change, but the event that triggers societal collapse is the stop, or rather the reversal, of evolution, meaning that humans give birth to homo erectus babies, dinosaur-like beings hatch from regular birds’ eggs, dragonflies suddenly have a wingspan of a meter again, and even plant species change beyond recognition. It’s never explained why this happens because in the book nobody knows either, but it causes the collapse of the US as a unified state and the appearance of some of the staples of dystopian fiction: widespread violence, deeply immoral governments, desperate or simply malicious people doing bad things, but also people coming together on a local level and trying to save as much and as many as possible.

So far, so omnipresent. What makes this book such a rare find for me was that it consistently focused on the perspective and the life of this one ordinary person who is not caught up in some high-level political/military game with the powers of evil, who is not even a member of the resistance, but simply tries her hardest to bring her child into the world (and get to keep it afterward). I say this with love, but she’s quite possibly the most unremarkable character in the main cast: she doesn’t smuggle people out or helps to hide anyone; she doesn’t work to form a self-subsistent, safe entity out of the reservation where her mother lives; she doesn’t take the initiative to escape once she’s captured; and most of the time, she’s the least informed person in the room.

But that’s exactly why it works, and why it’s different from other stories out there (more on that later). The dystopia is the setting, and don’t get me wrong, it works - sometimes frighteningly so because it feels so similar to our current situation: most people feel something is coming/here, but since they have little information and no idea what to do about it, they just keep on living while things around them deteriorate. But the dystopia is only the setting, not the story.

The story is about motherhood, both with regard to Cedar’s navigating the now two mothers in her life and with regard to Cedar’s own approaching motherhood. It is told in the form of a diary, narrated by Cedar and addressing her unborn child, which makes it feel very intimate. This intimacy is contrasted ever more by the way that the new powers that be (some sort of Christian fundamentalist church-government) try to turn reproduction into a matter of state control and public interest. In the end, the story is about Cedar fighting to be the one in charge of this supposedly very personal experience: mostly against the new regime, yes, but also against the baby’s father and even her adoptive mother. This focus on the personal over the political means that we spend a lot of time in Cedar’s head listening to her philosophical/religious musings (she’s a Catholic) and that we don’t get explanations for a lot of things that happen to her. As someone who loves the intricacies of good worldbuilding, I understand if this is frustrating to some people. But there’s a lot of stuff with expansive worldbuilding and lots of action out there already, and the fact that this isn’t like that is precisely what made this one stick out to me. In addition to that, there’s probably also a lot to be said about the religious symbolism in this book, especially around female saints, which gave it a philosophical tinge that I liked a lot, but half of that probably flew right over my head, so I’m going to leave that for now.

On Goodreads I saw a lot of people comparing this to The Handmaid’s Tale, with some even going as far as saying that they’re basically the same thing and that Louise Erdrich just ripped off what Margaret Atwood did better thirty years before. I don’t think that’s true though. Sure, they share some basic tenets, like a decline in fertility bringing about societal collapse, women being forcibly recruited to have as many babies as possible, or Christian fundamentalists taking charge. But there’s nothing entirely new under the sun, and I think they took some similar ideas and made them into different things. First off, the writing is very different: The Handmaid’s Tale makes you experience the soul-crushing boredom that the protagonist suffers, while Future Home is switches between a meditative tone and more action-y scenes, and the effect of being addressed directly as a reader (remember, it’s diary entries addressed to “you”) changes the reading experience.

Second, it has different themes. While The Handmaid’s Tale depicts isolation and the effects it has on the psyche, Future Home focuses on connections (especially between women) - positive connections, for the most part, but it doesn’t simplify them to a mere “we’re all best friends now”-level. They’re still complex and sometimes complicated, especially when it comes to Cedar’s sister and mothers. Future Home also presents a more balanced view on religion, simply because Cedar herself is a Catholic (one who is even knowledgeable about theology, but has a liberal mindset), while Atwood’s protagonist isn’t very religious. Another thing that sets Future Home apart from The Handmaid’s Tale is it’s inclusion of Native (Ojibwe) elements like reservation politics, history, the importance of a Native female saint (Kateri) to people’s spiritual lives, or Cedar’s anxieties about being Native by blood, but not by socialization. I love The Handmaid’s Tale as much as the next person, but it really is very white, and Future Home isn’t.

However, what this book actually reminded me of was a short story by Ted Chiang that I read recently named “72 Letters”. It builds on the concept of the golem, a figure made out of clay and animated by a piece of parchment with a special word/name on it that was supposedly built by rabbis to defend their communities against antisemitic pogroms. In this story, the technique is adapted to animate all sorts of automatons and get them to perform menial tasks - if you manage to find the right name for the creature, something that comprises its essence and capabilities in 72 letters. The society-shattering crisis in this story is still a few generations away, it sets in when a handful of scientists find out that in a few decades, all men will turn infertile, but it already brings out the worst in some of those in the know. The idea is to use the golem-animating technique to sort of artificially inseminate women, but mainly those of the middle and upper classes because God beware people decide on their own how many children they have and the unwashed masses take over. It’s not a very long short story, sadly, but it shares a few themes with Future Home like state control over reproduction, the ethical limits of science, God’s role in evolution and reproduction, and the struggle between different groups of people - social classes for 72 Letters, species of humans for Future Home. 72 Letters tackles the issue of significant changes to reproductive abilities from a Marxist perspective, while Future Home’s approach is more feminist, but they’re both interesting perspectives. What they definitely do show is that it’s not an intrinsically religious problem to want to take control over who procreates and who doesn’t, but that the same drive can be found in secular and even supposedly “progressive” people/ideologies/institutions, and that’s a lesson worth listening to.

[schraubd]

The Problem With Canaries

A group of pro-Israel, anti-BDS students at a variety of college campuses issued a statement harshly criticizing the Canary Mission for hindering their efforts on campus and unjustly maligning fellow students. They wrote:

Canary Mission is an anonymous site that blacklists individuals and professors across the country for their support of the BDS movement, presumed anti-Semitic remarks and hateful rhetoric against Israel and the United States. 

As a group of conscientious students on the front lines fighting BDS on our campuses, we are compelled to speak out against this website because it uses intimidation tactics, is antithetical to our democratic and Jewish values, is counterproductive to our efforts and is morally reprehensible. 

This blacklist aggregates public information about students across the country under the guise of combating anti-Semitism. It highlights their LinkedIn profiles, Facebook pictures, old tweets, quotes in newspapers and YouTube videos. The site chronicles each student’s involvement with pro-Palestinian causes and names other students and organizations with whom the given student may be affiliated. 

We view much of the rhetoric employed to villainize these individuals as hateful and, in some cases, Islamophobic and racist. In addition, Canary Mission’s wide scope wrongfully equates supporting a BDS resolution with some of the most virulent expressions of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel rhetoric and activity.

The ADL initially supported the students, referring to Canary as "Islamophobic & racist". Critics quickly contested what, exactly, Canary did that was "Islamophobic & racist", and a day later the ADL backed off, apologizing for "overly broad" language. I want to talk through why I think objections to Canary as Islamophobic are potentially justified. But I want to do so in what I think is a more nuanced and specified way, because there really are interesting questions here regarding the ethics of counter-antisemitism (or counter-racism, or counter-Islamophobic) discourse that I think are being elided in the usual rush to back our friends and lambaste our enemies. Let's stipulate for sake of argument that Canary doesn't use specifically Islamophobic rhetoric (in the form of racial slurs, conspiratorial claims about creeping Sharia, and the like), and that in general the factual claims they make about the targeted persons (that they did say X or join group Y) are factually accurate. I'm open to the possibility that they do use such rhetoric or that their claims aren't factual (in which case the argument that they're Islamophobic becomes trivially easy). But I make the stipulation because the case I'm going to make doesn't depend on any such behavior by Canary. Instead, let's focus on what we might think of as Canary's strongest possible foundation: factual revelations of things the profiled individual has definitely said, or groups they have definitely joined, absent any additional commentary. Again, I'm not saying that this is, in fact, all or even most of what Canary does -- I'm saying that this sort of thing would presumably represents the formulation of Canary's mission that would be most resistant to a claim of Islamophobia. So. First, I do not generally think it is a smear or otherwise wrongful to simply republish a terrible thing somebody has said (with appropriate caveats about not taking things out-of-context, omitting apologies, etc.). For example, the other day Seth Mandel accused me of a "smear" and a "lie" towards him in the context of my column on sexist responses to Natalie Portman not attending to the Genesis Prize. The irony of Mandel's complaint was that he was actually never mentioned in the column at all; he only appears in the context of two of his tweets being republished, verbatim, with no additional commentary or interpretation directed towards him whatsoever. If you can be "smeared" simply by quoting your own words back to you, then I suggest that the problem lies inward. Moreover, I'd suggest that there actually is something important about revealing the prevalence of antisemitism that exists amidst certain social movements (on campus or not) -- if only because Jews are so frequently gaslit on this subject. Just this week, the Interfaith Center at Stony Brook University had to release a statement (cosigned by a wide range of campus Jewish, Christian, and Muslim groups) in solidarity with campus Hillel after a campus SJP member demanded that Hillel be expelled from campus and replaced with "a proper Jewish organization" (proper, the student confirmed, meaning anti-Zionist). This blog had already covered the Vassar College SJP chapter distributing literal (1940s-era) Nazi propaganda about Jews. These things happen, and there's something off-putting about claiming that it's a form of cheating or a smear to document it. Too many people think that naming and shaming antisemitism is by definition a witch-hunt. That cannot be right, and we should be very suspicious of political arguments which act as if it is right, or act as if the very act of accusing someone of antisemitism (or, for that matter, racism, or sexism, or Islamophobia) is dirty pool or foul play. So what accounts for my unease? Well, for one it might be the sense that college students, in particular, often say dumb things they regret, and there shouldn't be an entire website dedicated to spotlighting them and inviting people to berate them for it. How much one sympathizes with that point would seemingly correspond to how much one dislikes "call-out culture"; if you're not a huge fan of it (especially when it comes to young people not otherwise in the public eye) then Canary would seem to be one manifestation of a generally malign social trend. Another basis for objection might be the distinctively chad gadya character of many of Canary's entries. If one reads the site, very frequently a profiled individual is listed because he joined a group which hosts a speaker who supports an organization who bit the cat that ate the goat ... and so on. There's a very distinctive "guilt-by-association" character to what Canary does that I think is obviously objectionable, regardless of how you label it. And note how it resonates with the way blacklists are being deployed against Jews and Jewish groups right now (e.g., the announcement by several NYU student groups that they were boycotting a bevy of Jewish organizations -- including the ADL). Such calls very frequently proceed by similar logic: the group supports a program which hosts a speaker who said a thing ... so on and so forth. Such logic could be used  to ensnare essentially anyone who affiliates with anything -- which means in practice it must be deployed selectively to delegitimize certain groups and causes under the guise of neutral idealism. If that stunt makes us uncomfortable when it's deployed against Jewish groups, it should make us uncomfortable when it's deployed against Muslim groups. And here is where I think the Islamophobia charge has legs. I don't want to say "imagine if this were done to Jews", because it is done to Jews (albeit perhaps not in quite as organized a form). But there absolutely are cases of blacklisting Jewish students simply because they've joined pro-Israel groups, without any claims that the student has said or done anything remotely racist or Islamophobic. And such behavior I think is rightfully thought of as deeply chilling, and striking too deep in terms of the way it polices to the letter Jewish political and communal participation. Many Canary entries seem to be based entirely on groups the individual has joined (everything from Students for Justice in Palestine to the Muslim Students Association -- the latter of which, it is worth noting, joined the letter in solidarity with Hillel at Stony Brook), rather than any specifically antisemitic things that the individual has said or done. That seems to be as dangerous as equivalent blacklist efforts targeting Jews who are part of Hillel, or Students Supporting Israel, or J Street (yes, J Street). Indeed, I could go further. Let's take the case of the students who have, themselves, said antisemitic things -- they're on the record. Surely there could be nothing Islamophobic about including them in a database? Yet even here, I'm conflicted -- and again, the mirror-case involving Jews perhaps reveals why. Imagine there was a website which cataloged people -- mostly, though not exclusively, Jews -- who were members of Zionist or Zionist-affiliated groups for the purpose of declaring to the world that they were racist and should not be worked with. Wouldn't we view that as being antisemitic in character? Suppose that it limited itself solely to those persons who had engaged in Islamophobic remarks -- with the goal of showing the degree to which Islamophobia and racism were prevalent in Zionist discourse, in a way that gave the impression that such views ran rampant amongst (Zionist) Jewish college students. Could that be viewed as antisemitic? My instinct is yes. It is an instinct that is, admittedly, at war with my above acknowledgment that documenting the real and non-negligible existence of antisemitism that exists in pro-Palestinian movements is not a form of cheating (and I'd likewise agree that documenting the real and non-negligible existence of Islamophobia that exists in Zionist movements is likewise not wrongful). But in both cases it is a delicate thing, lest the impression be given that Jews Are The Problem or Muslims Are The Problem. It isn't wrong to demand that groups be attentive to that possibility and work proactively against it, and it isn't wrong to be suspicious of them when they seem indifferent to it. What was it that Maajid Nawaz said? “Who compiles lists of individuals these days?" Of course, the answer is "many people and many groups," and maybe that's not per se wrong (or even avoidable). But certainly it is something that requires considerable care and concern, and Canary -- given its propensity for guilt-by-association, given its wide sweep, and given the range of individuals it includes under its ambit -- doesn't strike me as expressing said care and concern. Is that Islamophobic? Depends on how you define it, but I would suggest that there is a prima facie case of a sort of moral negligence directed at Muslim students. In other circumstances, that same sort of moral negligence impacts Jews. Either way, it's a wrong, and it's entirely fair to label it as such. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2r7Rd2y

[experiencingmyjoy]

Walking Within Wisdom #2 - 8-21-19 “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ~Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

Although I rarely watch the news, I woke up to a cacophony of emails, social media and alerts on my phone about the #POTUS comments yesterday about “Disloyal Jews”. TRUMP: "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat -- it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty." Even though I have just started doing Walking in Wisdom to shift away from this, the crazy, distractions, politics and hate speech AND although I am not interested in putting my time and attention to “fight” about this, I believe that if I can start DOING small things that don’t suck me into the hate and distraction AND redirect my time and energy toward something that makes a difference, bringing hope, inspiration, perhaps it will help me? So I figure I will give this a try today. The main voice/tweet/quote that showed up in ALL of my “feeds” this morning was Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt: "It's unclear who @POTUS is claiming Jews would be 'disloyal' to, but charges of disloyalty have long been used to attack Jews. As we've said before, it's possible to engage in the democratic process without these claims. It's long overdue to stop using Jews as a political football," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt So this morning instead of random podcast roulette for my walking within wisdom, I looked for a podcast with Jonathan Greenblatt and/or the ADL to redirect my time and attention and found this for Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) from 2017 https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/leading_through_turbulent_times As I am an avid follower of all things social entrepreneurship, I have read quite a bit about and by Jonathan Greenblatt but I somehow missed that he was now head of the ADL… For those of you who have never heard of him here is the opening paragraph on his wikipedia page: Jonathan Greenblatt (born November 21, 1970) is an American social entrepreneur, corporate executive, and the sixth National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Prior to heading ADL, Greenblatt served in the White House as Special Assistant to Barack Obama, and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. Also for those who don’t know about the ADL - Anti-Defamation League is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States. The ADL states that its mission is to "[fight] anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, [defend] democratic ideals, and [defend] civil rights for all", doing so through "information, education, legislation, and advocacy" Although this podcast was recorded in 2017 it could have EASILY been recorded this morning. Greenblatt talks about leading the ADL during turbulent times and fostering a culture of innovation within an established 100 year old + organization. The description from the podcast says: During the conversation, Greenblatt draws from his background in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. During the Obama administration, he served as special assistant to the President and head of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation at the White House. He previously co-founded Ethos Water, a bottled water company that donates a portion of its profits to help clean water initiatives around the world, and ran the media company GOOD. So what wisdom, hope or inspiration did I glean from this podcast? Gratefully a few things… The first is how he met his wife… A former boss of his from the Boston office of the ADL was now working the Los Angeles office of the ADL. As all good Jewish Mothers do she insisted he come over so she could feed him and she set him up on a blind date with his now wife. 17 years and 3 kids later they are still married :-) Another piece of inspiration was when he described how he was “headhunted” for the position at the ADL. He was a social entrepreneur he had never run a nonprofit, never worked in the Jewish Community, “its a civil rights organization and he certainly wasn’t a lawyer.” He truly believed they weren’t really interested in him, “they just wanted help to be networked to the right person.” He talked to them and he didn’t have anything to lose so he gave his feedback to the search firm - he didn’t want anything from them so he was liberated to speak his mind! Look what it got him ;-) He is truly humbled that the ADL gave him this opportunity to be accountable to this legacy… This is totally inspiring to me as an outlier, disrupter, positive deviant there still maybe hope for me 💕 Although there were many things in this podcast that I found really helpful his description of the founding of the ADL and its mission was most inspirational to me… Its mission is to “Stop the defamation of the Jewish people AND secure justice and fair treatment for all.” In 1913 jews had NO social capital, there was significant antisemitism with signs everywhere that read, “no dogs, no blacks, no jews”… Jews couldn’t live in many neighborhoods so it made perfect sense to create an organization to support and advocate for the Jewish people. What didn’t make sense was that the ADL would focus on not just “our community” it would focus on ALL COMMUNITIES this was completely audacious for the time 1913 and EVEN NOW! Having a dual mission has animated the organization for generations. This was a great podcast for me this morning. I found this experiment inspiring especially after the barrage of hate… What are you doing to deal with what is happening in the world, can we walk and talk? Will you share your wisdom with me? 

[featurenews]

How much do you remember from Trump's first 50 days in office? – quiz

Fifty questions on the reality star turned president’s frequently controversial start to his four years in the White House Before attending a series of inaugural balls around Washington DC, Trump signed an executive order seeking the “prompt repeal” of which signature Obama policy? The nuclear agreement with Iran Obama's healthcare law, known as Obamacare The US' participation in the International Climate Agreement Regulation of the big banks In his inaugural address, Trump said “we are transferring power from Washington DC and giving it back to you, the people”. This line uncannily echoed a speech from which Batman movie villain? The Joker Pengun Bane Poison Ivy Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, used his first White House briefing to berate journalists for their inauguration coverage and to make the spurious claim that record numbers of people had attended. How did White House aide Kellyanne Conway later defend Spicer? She said he was offering a "different narrative" She said he was "giving his own take" on events She said he gave "alternative facts" She said he had got out of bed on the wrong side More than half a million joined the Women’s March on Washington DC in what was thought to be the largest ever inauguration protest. Trump reacted via Twitter, saying: "So sad to see how many people hate freedom! Crooked Hillary and her supporters don't believe in democracy" "Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly." "Pathetic liberals trying to make it all about themselves. The people know better!" "So great to see so many people on the streets of Washington. Humbled by your support, let's make America great again!" Trump's first Monday in office was a busy one, in which he signed a flurry of executive orders. Which one won the cautious praise of Bernie Sanders? An order banning funding for international groups that provide abortions An order placing a hiring freeze on non-military federal workers. An order formally scrapping a flagship trade deal with 11 countries in the Pacific rim An order formally approving socialism in one country After Trump continued to make false claims about the presidential election, press secretary Sean Spicer said they were based on ‘studies and information he has’. What claims were they? That Trump had gained more votes than Hillary Clinton That millions of people voted illegally That it was the biggest election victory in history That Clinton had tried to get the election result overturned More executive orders followed on Tuesday, with Trump ordering the revival of Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, to the dismay of Native American and climate change activists. Trump said the Keystone pipeline would produce "a lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs. Great construction jobs.” A US state department study estimated the number of long-term jobs at how many? 6 50 200 5,000 Which world leader cancelled their scheduled meeting with Trump in the president's first week? Theresa May, prime minster of the United Kingdom Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation Mexico's president Enrique Peña Nieto Shinzō Abe, prime minister of Japan British PM Theresa May became the first foreign leader to visit the president at White House, successfully navigating a press conference that was deemed to have passed without too much embarrassment. But what were Trump and May later caught on video doing as they walked along the White House colonnade? Making inappropriate remarks about Hillary Clinton Holding hands Licking jam from each other's fingers Kissing Trump caused chaos with his executive order to close America's borders to to travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Which seven countries' citizens were blocked from entry? Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and Yemen Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Iran and Iraq Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, Cuba, Iraq and France After a weekend in which pre-approved refugees, students and workers holding visas and residency green cards were barred from flights to the US, how did Trump defend the ban on Twitter? "So proud of our border staff for making America safe - everything is going so smoothly, don't believe FAKE news!" "You wouldn't believe what CNN - a totally failing network, by the way - is saying about my Muslim ban. It's not a ban!" "Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!” "My executive order will make Americans safe again" As mass demonstrations and legal challenges against the travel ban mounted, which former President broke precent and criticised Trump's actions via his spokesman? Jimmy Carter Barack Obama George W Bush Bill Clinton In an interview with the New York Times, who did Trump strategist Steve Bannon say was "the opposition party"? The media The liberal elite The Democratic Party Other Republicans Donald Trump fired the acting US attorney general after she told justice department lawyers not to defend his executive order banning entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries. What was her name? Sarah Palin Sally Yates Ruth Bader Ginsburg Nancy Pelowski As the backlash against Trump's travel ban gathered steam, what emerged as the first official screening at the White House family theatre? Aladdin The Lion King Finding Dory Triumph of the Will What did Trump reportedly call “the worst deal ever” during a phone call with the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull? The Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The Australia-US refugee resettlement deal Agreement to a booting, after long distance phone call prank that went wrong The mayor of which European city offered this advice to Trump over his Mexico border plans: “Don’t build this wall!” London Berlin Barcelona "You take over TV, because you’re such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job, then people can finally sleep comfortably again.” Who issued this challenge to Trump? Alec Baldwin John Oliver Arnold Schwarzenegger Rupert Murdoch Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, sought to defend the travel ban by referring to which mass killing? 9/11 The "Bowling Green" massacre, which turned out not to have happened The Columbine High School massacre The attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida Myron Ebell, an adviser to the US president Donald Trump’s administration, raised eyebrows when he described something as "the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world”. What? Socialism TTP Gun control laws The environmental movement A federal judge ordered a temporary halt on Donald Trump’s travel ban, a halt which the Trump administration immediately sought to overturn. In which city did this judgement take place? Washington DC New York Atlanta Seattle The White House's Holocaust Remembrance Day tribute came under fire from the head of the Anti-Defamation League after which puzzling omission? It neglected to mention Holocaust Remembrance Day It did not mention Jews, Judaism or antisemitism It failed to say when the Holocaust took place There was no quote from the president himself The writers of which show said they would refrain from “mocking everybody in government” in future episodes, after saying it was getting difficult "satire has become reality”. Saturday Night Live The Daily Show South Park The Simpsons Which controversial adviser did Trump grant a regular seat at meetings of the National Security Council? Kellyanne Conway Steve Bannon Jim Murphy Rupert Murdoch 1.8 million people signed a petition in support of scrapping or downgrading an invitation for Trump to have a state visit, triggering a debate in parliament. Which country are we talking about? Australia India The United Kingdom Japan Who won rave reviews for their impression of White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live? Alex Baldwin Kate McKinnon Melissa McCarthy Chevy Chase Trump's first real national security scare came with a provocative North Korean missile launch. Where was Trump at the time? In the White House Aboard Air Force One Speaking at a rally Having dinner by candlelight with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe amid high-paying guests at his Palm Beach country club, Mar-a-Lago. The US national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned his position amid suggestions he had secretly discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington and then tried to cover up the conversations. How did Flynn describe the situation in his resignation letter? "During standard conversations with my Russian counterpart, I mistakenly gave the impression that I was able to give access to information that I could not provide" "Because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the vice president elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador." "Though what is reported does not tally with my recollection of the conversations with the ambassador, I have concluded that my continuing in my role as national security adviser would be an unwelcome distraction as the president focuses on making this country great again" As my good friend Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of Russia's foreign affairs committee stated, suggestions that Trump's administration has close ties with Putin is "not just paranoia but something even worse". Trump stunned the diplomatic world during a press conference with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by seeming to be ambivalent about which longstanding US commitment? A pledge of $38bn in military aid The two-state solution Maintaining a US embassy in Israel An end to dual US/Israeli Citizenship Trump turned his fire on the media at an extraordinary first solo press conference in which he claimed his team was running like “a fine-tuned machine”. Which of these things did Trump *not* say during the 77-minute extravaganza? "The Middle East is a disaster. North Korea – we’ll take care of it, folks; we’re going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.” “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control." "You wouldn't believe how many things we've got planned for the next month, you're going to love it. I guarantee you that people are going to love it." “I love this. I’m having a good time doing it. Tomorrow, the headlines are going to be: ‘Donald Trump rants and raves.’ I’m not ranting and raving.” After a speech at the Golden Globes, which actor did Trump describe as “overrated” and a “Hillary flunky”? Sigourney Weaver Meryl Streep Lena Dunham Susan Sarandon According to a draft memo obtained by the Associated Press, the Trump administration considered a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 national guard troops to do what? Assist with law and order in the inner cities Defend the border with Mexico while the new wall is constructed Round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border Fight the war on drugs During a campaign-style rally in Florida, Donald Trump confused the citizens of which European nation by seeming to allude to a terrorist attack that supposedly happened the previous night? United Kingdom France Germany Sweden Which former British MP unexpectedly managed to scoop US media on Trump's Russian ties? Tony Blair Louise Mensch Ed Balls Nigel Farage After a series of outbursts complaining about the press coverage of his administration, Trump annouced he would skip the White House correspondents' dinner. Who was the last US president not to attend? George W Bush Ronald Reagan Bill Clinton Richard Nixon Who told a gathering of thousands of conservatives that Trump is “maniacally focused” on fulfilling his campaign pledges? Donald Trump Nigel Farage Steve Bannon Milo Yiannopoulos The White House barred several news organizations from an off-camera press briefing as the administration's relationship with the media continued to deteriorate. Which of the below was included in the 24 February “gaggle” with Sean Spicer? The BBC Breitbart News New York Times The Guardian The White House made a late February attempt to control public perceptions of a widening scandal over alleged contacts between aides to Donald Trump and Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election. How did Trump tweet about the issue? "Keep hearing I'm friends with Putin from the lying media - what's wrong with getting along with other world leaders? Putin very strong" "Real Scandal is Hillary's shocking emails - FBI KNOW any claims against me are BS. CNN Is failing badly" "Russia talk is FAKE NEWS put out by the Dems, and played up by the media, in order to mask the big election defeat and the illegal leaks!" "I put on a beautiful event in Russia and I've not been back since - wish the MEDIA would CHECK their information!" Donald Trump’s first presidential address to Congress was an upbeat affair, in which the former reality tv star promised a “new chapter of American greatness”. Trump won praise and applause for singling out which figure? Abraham Lincoln John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona Carryn Owens, the widow of a US Navy Seal, Ryan Owens, killed in a controversial raid in Yemen. Steve Bannon Who was accused of “lied under oath” about twice speaking with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, during the presidential campaign, in apparent contradiction to his testimony to Congress. Attorney General Jeff Sessions Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin Secretary of Defense James Mattis In an apparent attempt to detract attention from the Jeff Sessions controversy, what did Trump accuse Barack Obama of in a series of early morning tweets? Being born in Kenya Plotting with Hillary Clinton to overthrow the Trump administration Tapping Trump's phones Leaving America's economy on the brink of collapse "We have come up with a solution that’s really, really I think very good. Now I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that [it] could be so complicated." What was Trump talking about? Building a war on the US/Mexican border Israel / Palestine Healthcare North Korea White House press corps covering the Trump administration were surprised to receive a brand-new espresso machine, intended to help them with their coverage. Who sent it to them? Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders Sean Spicer Tom Hanks "They gave me the beautiful hat and I said, ‘You know, maybe I’ll do that’. We have a great ‘Make America great again’ hat but I said, ‘This is a special day, we’re wearing this, right?’”. Where was Trump and what hat was he wearing? The border with Mexico, a United States Border Patrol hat A pirate ship at Disneyland, a pirate hat The USS Gerald R Ford, a hat with "“USS Gerald R Ford” on it Boston, a hat befitting the style worn during the American Revolution Again on the offensive over allegations over his team's ties with Russia, Trump tweeted an image of Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, enjoying what with Vladimir Putin? A clandestine meeting in Budapest A friendly wrestling match Eating doughnuts outside a shop A joke about Pussy Riot Donald Trump signed a revised executive order to reinstate a ban on immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries and suspend the US refugee program. Alongside other changes, which country was removed from the list of targeted states? Iran Iraq Syria Yemen “This is a dumpster fire of a bill that was written on the back of a napkin behind closed doors because Republicans know this is a disaster.” Which bill was Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut talking about? Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act Presidential Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs Presidential Memorandum Regarding the Mexico City Policy The American Health Care Act, or 'Trumpcare' Who denied that carbon dioxide emissions are a primary cause of global warming, in an interview with CNBC on Thursday? Donald Trump Steve Bannon Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s head of the US Environmental Protection Agency Sean Spicer Which state became the first to file a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s revised travel ban? Alaska Hawaii California Kentucky Speaking in an interview with the Guardian, which former presidential candidate said that Trump "lies in order to undermine the foundations of American democracy"? Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders Al Gore Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/10/how-much-do-you-remember-from-trumps-first-50-days-in-office-quiz?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr