#a reminder that women have nothing to gain by making false accusations

[liamlawsonlesbian]

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[sonyaintx]

“Sex and the City: And Just Like That”

________

I read the news about the allegations against Chris Noth today. After reading the article and thinking about Mr. Noth’s statement, I must agree with him.  The timing of these accusations are pretty suspicious. But the more I thought about it, I have a theory of why these allegations are coming out now. 

The Republican party has a platform for women.  Keep them scared and they will vote for anything that makes them comfortable again.  It worked in 2018 when Donald Trump said before the election that “Caravans of Latino migrants are COMING HERE and bringing crime and disease with them.”  Republicans gained two senate seats because white women voted for Republicans who vowed to “secure the southern border”.  

Just this election for governor in Virginia...it worked again. White women were falsely told that “Critical Race Theory” was being taught to their kids (its not. CRT is taught in law school). But Condoleeza Rice went on the show “The View” to warn that “Americans must not make white people feel bad about being white”.  They voted for the Republican candidate in Virginia that vowed to “stop teaching CRT to Virginia’s kids”.  

Recently Senator Ted Cruz (R) of Texas, when asked about a woman’s right to control her own body with her choices said on camera, “We (men) will tell women what they can do with their bodies.”  You all know that Republicans, by packing the Supreme Court with conservatives, are succeeding at ending access to abortion.  If successful, access to birth control pills is next.

When Republicans are also asked about the manufacturing base getting smaller in America, Republicans are on the record of saying the solution to less available jobs is that “women need to go back to traditional roles”. In other words, go have babies and stay at home.

Sex and the City, when you take a birds eye view of the totality of the series, is about women’s empowerment.  Four women who navigated a world where they supported each other putting themselves and their needs first, even while pursuing meaningful relationships with men.  “And Just Like That” continues the story and the themes of women putting themselves first with no apology.  Since the Republicans are on the record of being anti-women’s rights, it makes sense that they want to help torpedo a show that reminds women that they have choices and agency over their destiny in life. SATC: AJLT is not in keeping with the Republicans trying to keep women scared, angry, and looking for Republican male saviors to be elected for them.  

Attacking Chris Noth’s alleged personal sex life is just a tool to disgust women in the era of “Me Too”, thus turning off female viewers.  Remember, Donald Trump had at least 15 women accuse him of sexual assault in 2016.  12 hours before the first man was accused of sexual assault in 2017, Donald Trump Tweeted, “This is the calm before the storm”. 12 hours later Harvey Weinstein was accused.  A few days later, Matt Lauer.  A few days after that Kevin Spacy.  And in the months following, Bill Cosby, R Kelly and a slew of network executives.  The current “Me Too” movement was always a tool to get women’s focus on sex assault going elsewhere. And it worked.  Instead of Donald Trump’s sex assault allegations being front and center, the Republican party got women to take their energy elsewhere, with David Pecker of the National Enquirer to help by opening their vaults. 

Now that the 2022 Mid-Term elections are around the corner, expect more men to be raked over the coals. Chris Noth is just the first victim of the Mid-Term season. White women need to keep away from television that reminds them of their sexual/work/interpersonal agency.  And the Republican party want women to turn away from SATC.  That’s why the reviews are not good. Its a hit job.

Don’t let the Republican party manipulate you.  Enjoy the “Sex and the City: And Just Like That” series.  And don’t let Republicans tell you what you can do with your bodies. Women’s rights are under attack, and its not just reproductive choice. 

[96thdayofrage]

Media Rediscover Afghan Women Only When US Leaves

Just as US corporate news media “discovered” Afghan women’s rights only when the US was angling for invasion, their since-forgotten interest returned with a vengeance as US troops exited the country.

After September 11, 2001, the public was subjected to widespread US news coverage of burqa-clad Afghan women in need of US liberation, and celebratory reports after the invasion. Time magazine (11/26/01), for instance, declared that “the greatest pageant of mass liberation since the fight for suffrage” was occurring, as “female faces, shy and bright, emerged from the dark cellars” to stomp on their old veils. In a piece by Nancy Gibbs headlined “Blood and Joy,” the magazine told readers this was “a holiday gift, a reminder of reasons the war was worth fighting beyond those of basic self-defense” (FAIR.org, 4/9/21).

The media interest was highly opportunistic. Between January 2000 and September 11, 2001, there were 15 US newspaper articles and 33 broadcast TV reports about women’s rights in Afghanistan. In the 16 weeks between September 12 and January 1, 2002, those numbers skyrocketed to 93 and 628, before plummeting once again (Media, Culture & Society, 9/1/05).

Suddenly remembering women

Now, as the US finally is withdrawing its last troops, many corporate media commentators put women and girls at the center of the analysis, as when Wolf Blitzer (CNN Situation Room, 8/16/21), after referring to “the horror awaiting women and girls in Afghanistan,” reported:

President Biden saying he stands, and I’m quoting him now, squarely, squarely behind this decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, despite the shocking scene of chaos and desperation as the country fell in a matter of only a few hours under Taliban control, and the group’s extremist ideology has tremendous and extremely disturbing implications for everyone in Afghanistan, but especially the women and girls.

This type of framing teed up hawkish guests, who proliferate on TV guest lists, to use women as a political football to oppose withdrawal. Blitzer guest Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R.-Illinois), for instance, argued:

Look at the freedom that is being deprived from the Afghan people as the Taliban move into Afghan, or moving into parts of Afghanistan now, and you know how much freedom they had. Look at the number of women that are out there making careers, that are thought leaders, that are academics, that never would have happened under the Taliban leadership…. The devastation you are seeing today is why that small footprint of 2,500 US troops was so important.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R.-Iowa) gladly gave Jake Tapper (CNN Newsroom, 8/16/21) her take on the situation after CNN aired a report on the situation for women:

As you mentioned, for women and younger girls, this is also very devastating for them. The humiliation that they will endure at the hands of the Taliban all around this is just a horrible, horrible mar on the United States under President Joe Biden.

‘America rescued them’

Charity Wallace claimed in the Wall Street Journal (8/17/21) that Afghan “women and girls…made enormous progress over the past 20 years.”

Such analysis depends on the assumption that the US invasion and occupation “saved” Afghan women. In the Wall Street Journal (8/17/21), an op-ed by former George W. Bush staffer Charity Wallace ran under the headline : “The Nightmare Resumes for Afghan Women: America Rescued Them 20 Years Ago. How Can We Abandon Them to the Taliban Again?”

Two days later, a news article in the Journal (8/19/21) about the fate of women in Afghanistan explained: “Following the 2001 invasion, US and allied forces invested heavily to promote gender equality.”

The Associated Press (8/14/21), in a piece headlined, “Longest War: Were America’s Decades in Afghanistan Worth It?,” noted at the end that “some Afghans—asked that question before the Taliban’s stunning sweep last week—respond that it’s more than time for Americans to let Afghans handle their own affairs.” It continued, “But one 21-year-old woman, Shogufa, says American troops’ two decades on the ground meant all the difference for her.” After describing Shogufa’s experience for five paragraphs, the piece concludes with her “message to Americans”:

“Thank you for everything you have done in Afghanistan,” she said, in good but imperfect English. “The other thing was to request that they stay with us.”

Perhaps the most indignant media piece about Afghan women came from Caitlin Flanagan in the Atlantic (8/19/21), “The Week the Left Stopped Caring About Human Rights.” Flanagan argued:

Leave American troops idle long enough, and before you know it, they’re building schools and protecting women. We found an actual patriarchy in Afghanistan, and with nothing else to do, we started smashing it down. Contra the Nation, it’s hard to believe that Afghan women “won” gains in human rights, considering how quickly those gains are sure now to be revoked. The United States military made it possible for those women to experience a measure of freedom. Without us, that’s over.

Flanagan pointed to Afghan activist Malala Yousafzai, whom she accused “critics of the war” of forgetting, saying Yousafzai “appealed to the president to take ‘a bold step’ to stave off disaster.”

Next to last in women’s rights

Such coverage gives the impression that Afghan women desperately want the US occupation to continue, and that military occupation has always been the only way for the US to help them. But for two decades, women’s rights groups have been arguing that the US needed to support local women’s efforts and a local peace process. Instead, both Democrat and Republican administrations continued to funnel trillions of dollars into the war effort, propping up misogynist warlords and fueling violence and corruption.

Contra Flanagan’s insinuation, Yousafzai didn’t ask Biden to continue the occupation. In an op-ed for the New York Times (8/17/21) that most clearly laid out her appeal, she asked for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and for refugees fleeing the country. In fact, her take on the US occupation’s role in women’s rights (BBC, 8/17/21) is much more critical than most voices in the US corporate media: “There had been very little interest in focusing on the humanitarian aid and the humanitarian work.”

As human rights expert Phyllis Bennis told FAIR’s radio program CounterSpin (2/17/21), Malalai Joya, a young member of parliament, told her in the midst of the 2009 troop surge that women in Afghanistan have three enemies: the Taliban, warlords supported by the US and the US occupation. “She said, ‘If you in the West could get the US occupation out, we’d only have two.’”

Things did get better for some women, mostly in the big cities, where new opportunities in education, work and political representation became possible with the Taliban removed from power. But as Shreya Chattopadhyay pointed out in the Nation (8/9/21), the US commitment to women was little more than window dressing on its war, devoting roughly 1,000 times more funding to military expenses than to women’s rights.

Passive consumers of US corporate news media might be surprised to learn that Afghanistan, in its 19th year under US occupation, ranked second-to-last in the world on women’s well-being and empowerment, according to the Women, Peace and Security Index (2019).

As the Index notes, Afghan women still suffer from discriminatory laws at a level roughly on par with Iraq, and an extraordinarily low 12.2% of women reported feeling safe walking alone at night in their community, more than 4 points lower than in any other country. And just one in three girls goes to school.

Wrong kind of ‘help’

In 2015, a 27-year-old Afghan woman named Farkhunda Malikzada was killed by an angry mob of men in Kabul after being falsely accused of burning a Quran; US-backed Afghan security forces watched silently (Guardian, 3/28/15). The shocking story spread around the world, but the only US TV network to mention it on air was PBS (7/2/15), which offered a brief report more than three months after the murder, when an Afghan appeals court overturned the death sentences given to some of the men involved.

FAIR turned up no evidence of Caitlin Flanagan ever writing about Malikzada, either—or about the plight of any Afghan woman before last week.

According to a Nexis search, TV news shows aired more segments that mentioned women’s rights in the same sentence as Afghanistan in the last seven days (42) than in the previous seven years (37).

The US did not “rescue” Afghan women with its military invasion in 2001, or its subsequent 20-year occupation. Afghan women need international help, but facile and opportunistic US media coverage pushes toward the same wrong kind of help that it’s been pushing for the last two decades: military “assistance,” rather than diplomacy and aid.

For more than 20 years, US corporate media could have listened seriously to Afghan women and their concerns, bringing attention to their own efforts to improve their situation. Instead, those media outlets are proving once again that Afghan women’s rights are only of interest to them when they can be used to prop up imperialism and the military industrial complex.

[alottanothing]

Left to Ruin Chapter Six

Summary: Kahmurnah makes a decision that affects more than just his brother’s happiness. Nouke struggles with the life she finds forced upon she and her family. 

Previous Chapters

Word Count: 5209

Warnings: none

Tag List:  @xmxisxforxmaybe​, @r-ahh-mi​, @theultraviolencefan​, @hah0106​, @rami-malek-trash​, @diasimar​, @sherlollydramoine​, @flipper-kisses​, @ivy-miranda-2390​, @txmel​, @sunkissedmikky​, @concentratedsassandcandy​, @babyalienfairy​, @edteche2​ (Let me know if I missed you, or if you would like to be added to the tag list)

A/N:  This one sorta jumps backward a bit—stora a “meanwhile at the palace” while Ahk and Meren are venturing. Hopefully that’s not confusing. Also, thank you once again for the love you’ve been showing this story! It’s such a great feeling knowing others are enjoying something I’ve poured so much into. I wanna give you all hugs! 🤗🤗 Once again as a disclaimer, I am not an ancient Egyptian expert and google only knows so much. So yeah, I took so historical liberties while writing this to make my life easier, but tried to keep it as “authentic” as possible. Keep in mind that Nouke and Ahk are the same age, so at the beginning of this she’s 13 years old. 

The first few days after the prince left were the hardest. Nouke was angry; angry she'd convinced Ahk not to ask his father whether or not she could accompany him. The likeliness of the pharaoh allowing a servant girl to join the princes' adventure was slim, but she’d snuffed out the flame of hope before it could even spark. Which meant it was her fault she missed him so bad.

After two weeks, the days began to feel less empty. The atmosphere of the capital was calm; no sense of impending doom lingered without the wise ruler Merenkahre there to guide them. The queen was keeping Kahmunrah in check; or at least that was the word around the palace according to the servants. With Akhmenrah away, Nouke’s gossip all came from the women she worked with. They loved to talk, and Nouke found their stories both intriguing and ridiculous but listening to the drama helped the hours go by faster. 

Her day to day routine was the same as it had been since she’d begun her life of servitude; the only change was the amount of work she took on. Nouke encumbered herself with more work than a girl of thirteen was expected to do, she liked the distraction and how often her work bled into the evenings. Evenings were the hardest to endure with her friend away; the garden just wasn’t the same without his warmth.

Her world no longer held the same spark with Ahk away, but Nouke was glad for the routine she found with her responsibilities. Life was dull, but pleasant; at least for a time.

The sun was still high in the sky the day two brutish men ambushed her while she was hanging linens to dry. Instinctively, Nouke kicked and shouted, trying to squirm her way out of their strong grasp; her heart pounded against the walls of her chest, startled. They were not usual palace guards who had seized her, she could tell by the armor they wore. The pieces they wore were shoddy and not the golden regalia of palace guards. The men who carried her were dressed like mercenaries: Kahmunrah’s hired compatriots.

Nouke knew very little about Ahk’s older brother. He had a reputation among most of the servants as being needlessly cruel, and from how Ahkmenrah spoke of him, she knew that the eldest prince wanted nothing to do with any of his siblings. Her friend had spoken many times about wishing Kah would act like a brother to him—share a kinship. Nouke never understood why anyone would want such a man to be their sibling. 

“What have I done?” Nouke spit out, a little more harshly than she intended. “Where are you taking me?”

Her captors met her with a stone-faced silence that caused a trickle of fear to seep into her. In a flash, her mind searched through all the chores she had tended to, desperately trying to recall one she may have missed or done wrong—Am I being punished?

Without Ahk to keep her up to date on royal happenings, Nouke knew only that the pharaoh had left his eldest son in command, with the queen watching over his every move. But the queen was away too, hosting a week-long festival for the goddess Isis near the temple at the opposite end of the city; a fact Nouke was privy to only because of her mother’s closeness with the queen. 

With Shepseheret away, the only person left to bark commands was Kahmunrah. Nouke had purposely avoided the displeasure of his company, but the gnawing in her stomach told her that was about to change.

Gaining no answer from the men who drug her through the halls like a woven sack of perishables, Nouke’s fight faded, knowing her best option was submission; she had no other choice but to keep her mouth shut and obey. Even so, she kept her resolve steady; her emotional strength was the one thing she could flaunt. It gave her a way to fight back without physicality: a way to show whoever had summoned her that she would not easily be broken.

Nouke’s captors brought her through the towering doors of the throne room and stopped several paces back from where Kahmunrah sat radiating a suffocating air of lordliness. The eldest son of the pharaoh Merenkahre had adorned himself with surplus raiment; jewels sparkled off of his wide collar, bracers, belt, and rings. He was wrapped in a golden cape, decorated with the fur of a mighty beast as though to further sell the lie. Kah wore everything except the one thing that truly made him the ruler he thought himself to be—the crown.

Nouke decided quickly that there wasn’t even the smallest fraction of the man before her that reminded her of his younger brother. Everything she needed to know about Kahmunrah was there in his cold eyes and smug expression. She couldn’t help but frown at him, her eyes narrowing skeptically—how could the man before her hold any relation to her sweet prince?

Surrounding the wannabe king was a group of men who’s attire was significantly less lavish, but they collectively held a mein of power that was blatantly domineering. Their eyes weren’t as cold as Kahmunrah’s, but they looked down upon her as though the very sight of someone of her class was detestable. As for Kah, he had hardly glanced her way. He’d given her an inferior side-eye with an added sneer and nothing more. He found her presence irritating, but Nouke couldn’t help but feel the same way about him.

Just as Nouke began weighing the likelihood of making a churlish remark without reprimand, the throne room doors swung open again as two more sets of Kahmunrah’s men entered. One pair had a hold of her father, who like she had been, was kicking and trying to wrangle free. The other two had her mother, and the fear she found on her mother’s face was enough to strike a crack in her resolve.   

“I am a soldier in the pharaoh's army! I demand to know what is the meaning of all of this!” her father, Ramentukah said through bared teeth, addressing the false king.

Kahmunrah remained pompously relaxed on his throne, looking down on them as though they were insects he wanted nothing more than to crush beneath his feet. He said nothing for a long while, purposely letting Ramentukah’s question hang in the air between them as a reminder they were in no place to make demands of a member of the royal house.

His cold eyes leered as the smug simper faded into a firm line, morphing into a look of disgust. Finally, he stood, and when he spoke, his tone was condemning and dark.  

“It has come to my attention, that my brother’s prized tablet has gone missing from its temple. It is also my understanding that you—” Kahmunrah shifted his gaze to Nouke’s father. “Ramentukah, were the last soldier to stand guard at the temple doors.”

Nouke’s mouth popped open, and her narrowed eyed glare zeroed in on the eldest prince, shocked that her loyal father would even be accused of such a crime. The pharaoh Merenkahre and the Queen had always treated her family kindly. It was even the pharaoh who had given her father the opportunity to better himself by becoming a soldier instead of living his life as a farmer. Nouke knew without a doubt her father would never do anything to sully what he had achieved—especially by stealing the princes’ tablet. 

Nouke’s mother even gave Kah a look of disbelief, shaking her head, not giving in to the accusation.

Nevertheless, Ramentukah bowed respectfully. “Your Grace, I assure you I, nor my family have no involvement with this crime.”

Kah’s sneer grew more repulsed, taking her father’s denial as a challenge.

“I owe all that I have become to the pharaoh—your father. Why would I do anything to slight he or his kin? I have been a loyal, obedient soldier for many years. My wife and daughter, loyal, hard-working servants—friends to her majesty the queen and the prince. Why would I partake in a crime that would jeopardize those relationships?" Ramentukah kept his head bowed as he spoke, to show that he meant no offense, but his tone was steady and full of conviction. 

Despite all the words of logic and her father's obvious obedience, Nouke could see from the look of his callous features, that the eldest prince was still unconvinced.

“Why indeed?” he quipped with a shrug. “Yet, to me, your story seems highly suspect.”

Kahmunrah paused to think, rubbing the point of his chin until a flash of wickedness gleamed in his dark eyes.

“A crime of this caliber surely had accomplices…” his serpentine eyes moved to Maketaten and Nouke.

Suddenly, a knot twisted into Nouke’s stomach, and her throat grew tight as her heart pounded loud enough and quick enough she was certain everyone in the throne room could hear it. The anticipation and the speculation were causing her breaths to fall short as she watched Ahkmenrah’s evil brother work in his mind how best to destroy them.  

“Involvement with a thief demands a punishment equal to the severity of the culprit,” Kah grinned fiendishly. “Execution—all three of you.”

Nouke stared blankly, vision tunneling, emotions rearing to an eerie calm despite the dreadful sentence; she was frozen. Her mother, however, broke into loud sobs and quiet pleas while her father tried to reason.

“Your majesty, it was me that stood guard. If someone must be punished, let it be me. I beg of you—mercy for my family. Let Anubis judge only my soul.”

Tears were fighting to spill from Nouke’s eyes as she listened to her father plead; his willingness to die to spare them enough to make her stomach churn sickly in her gut. She wanted to scream, to fight—to fling her fists at Kahmunrah’s smug face. But doing so would surely make things worse, so she stayed quiet, drowning, and frozen in her emotion. 

Kahmunrah stood, savoring every moment as her father and mother continued to beg for their lives and the life of their daughter. She could see the glint of honest joy reflect in his eyes as her parents groveled at his feet. Nouke hated him.

Just before guards could be called to take them away, the men standing behind the false king spoke up, looking displeased.

“Enough, Kahmunrah!” an older man spoke robustly. “You’ve had your fun—you know only the queen holds the power to sanction such punishment while the Pharaoh is away.”

The frown that took hold of Kah’s lips was significant enough to shake the earth; he turned to the man who had spoken and Nouke could hear the irritation his face held.

“The queen. Is not. Here.” 

“And need we remind you. You are the discarded prince of the pharaoh; you hold no more power than we,” the same man said sternly. “Our pharaoh gave you command out of pity, not thanks, I assure you.”

All at once, the throne room was hotter than the desert sun as Kahmunrah’s anger boiled over. He shouted and argued, cursing the men who advised him, filling the nearly empty hall with malevolent words that were as sharp as knives.   

While he screamed, Nouke wanted nothing more than to run to her mother and father, but each of them were still restrained. A single tear slid down her cheek, breaching her composure, finding that it was not for herself, or her parents but for Ahkmenrah. What would he think when he returned and learned of her family’s persecution? Would he believe the rumor? Would he be glad Kah had sentenced them to death on account? Nouke shook her head—her friend would never be so cruel. He would be brokenhearted by the whole situation and the thought of his warmth being consumed with sadness almost sent another tear down her cheek.

Ahkmenrah would know neither she nor her family was involved in such lunacy; the only anger he may hold would be on account of his brother destroying innocent lives.    

An entire lifetime could have passed before Kahmunrah relented his arguing. The irritation heavily creased onto his brow lent a glimmer of hope. Had he turned to address them with delight and malice in his eyes, Nouke knew they would be killed for sure. That annoyance lingered—lips pursed tight as he toppled back into his throne, eyeing them.

“My advisors feel that the lack of evidence dictates a different form of punishment.” He said boredly. “The first involves the three of you being locked away in a cell, where you will await trial until the tablet is found, and evidence to your involvement may be denied. If you are innocent, you may return to your duties as usual. If found guilty—execution.” 

“And the second?” Ramentukah asked, voice steady.

“Banishment—effective immediately," Kah stated, just as boredly. “You will be removed from the palace grounds ensuring you will escape execution, but you will be stripped of titles and privileges you currently hold.”

Ramentukah glanced to his wife and daughter looking beaten and betrayed. He had always been proud of the ranks he’d earned and the placement he’d gained for his family; a life in the palace—even as servants—was better than a life on the streets.

“Make your decision, soldier, or it will be made for you!” Kah shouted, growing impatient.

Ramentukah glanced toward his wife and daughter, sighing out of relief, or defeat, Nouke couldn’t tell.

“Banishment, my lord. Give us banishment so that I may see my daughter grow, and so I may continue to love my wife with all my heart.”

The sentiment was lost on Kahmunrah, and his annoyance grew having been denied the prospect of executing them in the future.

“So be it,” he sneered. “And I will warn you. If any of you are discovered on palace soil again, I will personally see to it that you are given a swift execution.

With an errant wave, he instructed his men, “Remove them.”

Just as quickly as before, the men holding her by the arms pulled her through the corridors of the palace. They were given only moments to collect their things from their rudimentary quarters before being hastily escorted through the palace with weapons held behind their backs.

Nouke’s tears began to fall in earnest, in quiet streams unable to hold them at bay any longer. Her nerves were frayed—emotions a chaotic jumble in her head. Some of those tears spilled in relief: relief that she and her parents would live to see another day. And some fell as the realization she would never see her sweet prince again finally settled.

Her heart felt like a stone in her chest with that thought, and she wondered if he would miss her as much as she would miss him.

***

Nouke had never seen the capital of Waset first hand until the day her family was cast out of the palace. Most of her life was sheltered behind sturdy walls, venturing beyond them only when she and the prince would make use of their secret passageway in the West Garden. Even then, they had never dared to stray too far, at most seeing the city from a distance.

The city streets were loud and dirty and teeming with people from all walks of life. For a moment, it sparked her sense of adventure seeing sights she had only ever heard about from the merchants who came to sell their goods to the palace. Still, Nouke never strayed too far from her parents as they fell in line with the flow of foot traffic. It seemed like they walked for hours, and her feet hurt when they finally took refuge in an inn close to the city's center. 

That first night, and every night thereafter for several months she and her family stayed within the musty walls of that inn. Much of her time was spent alone in their single room while her mother and father took odd jobs to save money to purchase land with the hope to one-day farm.

Those days were the hardest. The small space was drab and dark compared to the bright, beautiful halls Nouke was used to—they seemed to mirror the sorrow she felt. Most of all she missed her friend.

Before long, Nouke said farewell to the drab walls of the inn, and home became a plot of land on the far end of the city. The high walls, golden statues, and towering columns she was used to became a structure of modest means; a dwelling constructed of mud and bricks with enough land to plant on. 

Ramentukah wasted no time in teaching Nouke and his wife how to best till the soil, calling upon teachings he’d learned in his youth. The work was hard, grueling in the desert heat, but Nouke caught on quickly. When harvest time came, her father showed them how best to bushel and bundle their crop to sell at the market, and after two bountiful harvests, their farm grew even more.

Her father hired hands to help them and even bought livestock to ensure more lucrative income. Nouke was glad for the routine of it all: the early mornings, long hours in the field, trips to the market, then early to bed for it all to begin once more come the dawn. It left her with little time to dwell on things she’d been forced to leave behind—especially the prince she would never see again.

But she did see the prince again; two times from afar and each time more heartbreaking than the last.   

The first time she saw him, Nouke had been in the market square with her father, trying to sell bushels of produce from their latest harvest out of the back of a cart. Usually, she enjoyed the clamor and the fresh faces she saw in the busy streets of Waset. They were colorful people she liked to imagine were adventurers with significant means and a head full of stories to tell her, even though most were simple common farmers like she and her father; simple people trying to make enough coin to keep food on the table. Still, the game helped the hours pass while she sat with her father, munching on the pieces of their harvest that were less likely to sell.

That morning, however, Nouke awoke with a peculiar melancholy lingering in the pit of her stomach. It was a feeling that dulled the world around her; a sadness she couldn’t quite place and all she wanted to do was stay on the farm where her usual chores offered enough distraction to steal away the poignant ache. Not even her game of making up grand tales for all the merchants could deter what she felt. Her mind instead wandered, and without really meaning to, she counted the month’s her family had been living in exile. A frown weighed on her lips, inducing more ruefulness to stir in her gut, realizing it was easier to count the years.

Two years as a commoner were not so terrible. There was a sort of freedom in their banishment but also uncertainty too. Those who worked in the palace were promised shelter and at least one meal in exchange for servitude. Nothing was promised as a farmer except longer working hours in the desert sun.

Two years. 

Two years of a lifetime under that sun and dirt under her fingernails. Two years of a lifetime praying the gods gave them bountiful crop. Two years of a lifetime away from her friend.

Nouke's frown plunged deeper, and a sigh escaped her lips. She missed her kind prince.

Just as she turned to beg her father to go back to the farm, craving the meticulous distraction that awaited her, a commotion stopped her words before they could fall past her downturned lips, drawing her attention elsewhere.

The market was always a symphony of indistinct chatter as the merchants swindled customers: chickens clucking in their cages and children screaming as they ran wildly about. All of it had become a familiar thrum Nouke was used to. The crash of drums split that normal wiring with an echoing beat Nouke easily plucked from the typical chaos. In rhythm with the drumming fell a softer sound of marching, growing louder moment by moment as the source approached.

Curiosity swelled in her stomach, devouring the melancholy ache that had plagued her all morning, and she stood on the edge of the cart, eyes darting around in search of the exciting new sound. Drums and the accompaniment of marching could only mean one thing, a parade, a royal parade.   

The last time such sounds resonated throughout the city center were the day the pharaoh and the prince returned after years away. Nouke missed that one, stuck at home working in the fields with her father and the boys they employed to help. Another parade so soon could only mean one thing; her friend now wore the crown.

She wasn’t going to let herself miss another chance to see Ahk. Nouke jumped from her father’s cart and pushed her way through the gathering crowd until she found a stoop that gave her an unhindered view of the approaching procession. Her heart was beating out a rhythm much too quick to keep in time with the methodical pulse of the drums ringing in the air; hope began to surge through her, that in her mind she knew would only make that ruefulness she felt earlier return worse than ever.

When she finally saw him, her fervent heart almost stopped completely; he was ethereal from a distance.

Ahkmenrah rode proudly in his golden chariot pulled by white stallions. His gilded raiment shimmered in the sun’s light, glittering jewels on his wesekh and belt, with a crown on his head. Her prince had become a Pharaoh—one step further from her reach. Even so, Nouke couldn’t keep from calling out to him; she wanted to let him know that, despite all that had befallen her; she was okay. She wanted to tell him how proud she was of him and that no matter the paths they tread she would always be his friend. However, amidst all the commotion, Ahk never so much as glanced in her direction.

The smile slowly faded as Nouke watched him come and go, feeling a heaviness in her heart that she’d not endured since the day she and her family were banished from the palace.

***

After four years of plowing, harvesting, and haggling at the market, Nouke’s life had never felt more normal. The youth she’d spent in the palace seemed more akin to a dream the longer time went on. She would always cherish those memories with the entirety of her heart, even if they did often make her heart feel heavy. Her time to play in the palace gardens had ended, but she never wanted to forget her friend.

The closest thing she had to that mystical garden of her childhood was the Waset city square. It was open and teeming with life, both greenery, and people. She would sit under the shade of the manicured palms or on the edge of the large fountain, reveling in the life she held. A part of her was glad for the exile wrongly given to her family. Her entire world would have been cooped up in high palace walls forever serving and never seeing.

Nouke thought seldom of her past life whenever she could spend a day at the city's center. However, when she ventured to the roof of their modest farmhouse, Nouke always let her mind wander while her eyes looked to the horizon, seeing the palace sparkling in the distance. Especially then thoughts of her youth began to tug relentlessly on her heartstrings. She’d spent countless evenings among the nest of makeshift cushions and mats she’d acquired over the years with tears in her eyes as she looked to the ever-present reminder of the friend she was forced to leave behind.

***

It had been the talk of everyone for over a week in the capital; the pharaoh would soon take a bride. The excitement was tangible from the market square all the way to the docks along the Nile, especially when the nobles began to arrive to join in on the festivities at the palace.

That week was long for Nouke. Every merchant and customer seemed more animated with the prospect of citywide celebration, but Nouke could not bring herself to share the collective elation. Nevertheless, she put on a smile anytime someone came to her and her father’s cart to make a sale speaking of the upcoming union, then her face would fall back into its perpetual frown.

Her heart ached more than she cared to admit, and though she knew it wasn’t her place to harbor such unfathomable anguish about her sweet prince marrying another; the idea ate at her every moment. Never so much as the moment, she saw him again.   

Sleep never came to her the night before the pharaoh was to take his queen; she spent every hour tossing and turning, envying her soundly sleeping parents on the opposite side of the room. Nouke felt like grieving, but she was too stubborn to let herself shed any more tears over a life she knew could never be hers. Sadness, however, was almost worse without the release of tears.

Before the sun breached the horizon, Nouke ventured up to her nest atop their home, resting against a stack of sacks and the quarter wall that lined the roof. She looked to the stars in the sky, watching them fade as the sun’s light consumed them. It took her most of the early morning to work up the nerve to let her sight find the palace on the horizon, knowing what torment it would bring her already laden heart. For a moment, she thought maybe her time in those far-off walls was only a dream: her golden childhood a glittering illusion her spirited mind cooked up. Nouke hoped it wasn’t merely a dream—she didn’t want Ahk to be only a dream.   

Nouke lingered on her rooftop hideaway much of the morning, too disheartened to worry about the chores she was ignoring. She spent those hours mulling over the want to gather in the city square with the hope to catch a glimpse of the pharaoh and his queen. She wasn’t sure her heart could take that. Yet, the notion of seeing Ahk again was too intriguing to let pass by.

Nouke, against her better judgment, left for the city center just as the sun reached the middle of the sky, hoping she hadn’t missed the parade. Much of her walk she spent promising herself not to shout his name to stir the hope that he would see her; she would watch along with everyone else with no thought of ever becoming more than she was.  

The crowd was already beginning to gather when Nouke reached the largest part of the city's center, finding every face alight with smiles; joy her heart was too heavy to properly hold. Quickly, she perched herself on the wide edge of the fountain, standing, before anyone else had thought to do so. Others joined her on the platform, pushing and shoving until she stood shoulder to shoulder with strangers. Nouke envied them all of their ignorance; they were there to see their king and marvel—she was there to catch a final glimpse of the life she had lost.

Before long, drums filled the air with a familiar rhythm, and with each nearing beat, the communal exuberance stirred. Nouke’s heart began to beat faster, nervous knots growing in her stomach. The louder the drums became, the more Nouke questioned why she had talked herself into enduring such heartache. Still hope swelled in her breast and she yearned to shove through the sea of people, stopping before her pharaoh’s golden chariot to beg he take her back to the palace.  

Nouke wanted to feel the warmth of his kindness one more time, even if all she would ever be to him was a servant. However, she knew her place was to do and say nothing to him; he was the ruler of an empire, and she was the daughter of a suspected thief. Their paths were destined to remain forever divided.

Cheering and clapping pulled Nouke out of her rueful thoughts when the parade was upon them. The pharaoh Ahkmenrah and his Queen Setshepsut rode by slowly, hand in hand with smiles on their faces. Nouke couldn’t help but offer a soft smile seeing Ahk’s little sister Set, grown into a beautiful young woman. The prince had always been protective of his youngest sister; how perfect it was that she became his queen. He could be happy with her, and that gave Nouke a sliver of solace.  

As they passed, Nouke uttered no words or shed no tears despite the emotions writhing inside of her. It was crushing to realize she would never again know him, but she tightened her jaw with stubborn disapproval of her own feelings. There was no sense in them.

“He’s so handsome,” the stranger next to her thought aloud.

Nouke nodded.

“Yes,” the stranger's friend rebuked unenthusiastically. “But I bet he’s nasty. The handsome ones always are.”

“No,” Nouke said before she could stop herself. “You’re wrong. He’s the kindest person I’ve ever met.”

The two women cast her a skeptical glance, “And how is it, you know that?”

“My family used to work in the palace,” she confessed without missing a beat, eyes still locked on the king and queen as they rode further away. “He and I grew up together. He was my friend…”

Nouke’s voice trailed off as memories she cherished rushed to fill her mind. It wasn’t until Ahk and his queen were swallowed by the sea of people that she finally blinked back to reality. Both strangers were staring at her as though she’d spoken utter nonsense, and Nouke wondered what had possessed her to come to Ahk’s defense; though she was glad she had nonetheless.

With a sigh, Nouke left the throng of people before the sound of the drums faded completely. The image of Ahkmenrah and his queen was cumbersome in her mind as she strode through the empty streets. She knew her heart would never truly forget him, but if she could push as many of those memories out of her mind, maybe life would be easier—less painful. If she willed herself to lock him away, to forget everything about her friend that made her feel whole, then perhaps she could find peace. 

And for a while, she did. 

Next Chapter-> Chapter Seven: What We Lost

[yes-mybodymychoice-world]

An Ohioan’s Letter to her Local Government and its constituents:

The coronavirus global pandemic hit our neck of the woods just shy of March 2020. It runs our headlines, dinner table conversations, fills the pages in our journals and minds. We breathe the topic of this virus in our everyday lives. As Ohioans, we find ourselves looking to our elected leaders for guidance. In the election season, I find myself thinking how pertinent it is for us to stay aware of the actions and decisions our lawmakers make for us. Mike DeWine has served our state since 2019 as Governor. Before that, he acted as Ohio's Attorney General from 2011 to his election in 2019. However, how many of us find ourselves following his decisions from office? DeWine finds himself on our nightly television screens, front-page headlines, and phone alerts as he takes the front stage with his plan of attack concerning COVID-19.

Through DeWine’s news coverage, we have easily followed his choices to shut the state of Ohio down and his mandate regarding mandatory masks in public spaces. He canceled weddings, graduations, shut down parts of our economy all for the sake of human lives. This, we understand. This we have followed in suit. We keep up with the coverage because the outcome of his decisions affects the state of our health, our financials, and our futures.

But, can we say the same thing about his decisions pertaining to abortion access? As voters in Ohio, can we assuredly say we know every decision and statement he has made in reference to women's reproductive health access? Before writing this, I, as a young voter, was unaware of all his movements regarding reproductive health access. I was unaware of his old news coverage in which Planned Parenthood sued him and Ohio for defamation after he made statements accusing P&P of putting fetal corpse tissue in landfills and then selling that same tissue, which proved to be false. Ohio taxpayers then were settled with the legal bills as a result of his defamatory remarks that were factually incorrect.  

The witch hunt does not end with Planned Parenthood as our sitting Governor supported the passing of the Heartbeat Bill, which restricts abortion as early as six weeks, and then subsequently signed the bill into law. This bill holds no exceptions for rape or incest.

It is imperative to bring these two concepts together in a digestible way. Many right-winged voters have voiced their outrage at Governor Mike DeWine in response to his mandate on mandatory mask-wearing in our state through the pandemic. These voters declare it a violation of our civil liberties and that our federal and local governments have no say in what we should do with our bodies. This fight is something that rings all too close to the pro-choice voters in not just Ohio, but our entire country. These advocates have fought tirelessly to gain our right to legal abortion access for decades. So, I ask you how much are these two topics different?

We vote into our legislation elected officials who make abortion after just six weeks illegal even in the case of rape and incest. At six weeks, most women are not aware they are pregnant.

We continue to debate abortion on two separate aisles. We see this fight as either pro-choice or pro-life. But I ask of you, are you aware of who you are voting for? We rise in outrage over wearing a mask in public but not when a seventeen-year-old girl gets raped at a college party and cannot get the courage to ask her parent for signed consent. And even if she does obtain permission, she must go through two separate visits to the physician? That she must find a hospital without religious ties to get her restricted legal abortion. You might respond that she should simply go to a clinic.

Ohio has a mandate that abortion clinics must have a transfer agreement with a local hospital within thirty miles.There is no exception for rural clinics. Nothing requires hospitals to enter a transfer agreement with clinics. Ohio prohibits state hospitals, university and college hospitals from entering transfer agreements.

Where do these restrictions leave our women in Ohio? Our sisters, daughter, friends. Women who have been preyed upon or find themselves with nowhere to turn. Our women of color face a disproportionate inequality in respect to birth control access and health care. Yet, we expect them to carry on with unplanned pregnancies in a way that we see fit. What ramifications do we insist upon them because of who we elect into office?

We find ourselves rallying in our streets against wearing a mask when we go to dinner, the store, or to get our hair done.

We have found ourselves in utter outrage in response to our Governors decisions during this pandemic for just over half a year.

Imagine how our women in Ohio have felt since 2011.

My fellow constituents, I ask that you remind yourself of more than just the pandemic the next time we find ourselves in the voting polls, think of our sisters, friends, and our daughters. What do our choices do to them?

Sincerely, 

An Ohio Woman

[cougarforcenty]

hung the moon...

a/n: some of you may dislike the ending as its a bit of a cliffhanger. i couldn’t make up my mind. may write a second part to this one. feedback is glorious + nourishing fruit.

summary: noah + the new costar who hates him get stuck in a precarious situation. costar’s faceclaim is the beautiful zazie beetz.

word count: 2638

warnings: none

You couldn’t really place it. You didn’t know what it was about him, or the general idea of him, that you found so untoward and irritating. You had enough self-awareness to realize that it may be the complete makings of your own neurosis and natural distrust but you just couldn’t shake it.

Everyone positively loved him. He had the cast and crew practically eating out of his hands. The girls in hair and makeup laughed at all his silly, menial jokes. The director showered him with compliments and tempered direction. Your co-stars would retell stories from the nights you went to bed early about some stupid prank he pulled on someone.

All in all, it seemed like you were the only one not fully on the Noah Centineo train.

But really, that was completely okay with you. You didn’t have the time or energy or mental capacity to be sucked into the false charm of another male co-star.

Been there, done that, didn’t even get a t-shirt.

At this point, you wanted to focus on your craft; wanted to truly harness your emotive propensities. You wanted to give a stellar performance and then get onto the next set, with a completely new group of people and hopefully not be cast alongside the world’s next biggest heartthrob.

You hope that your reticence with him isn’t coming off in your scenes together. You try to play it off as how your character would organically feel in a situation of love triangle proportions. You watch the dailies and can see that slight sheened veneer you put on when your characters are entangled. Whether emotionally or physically, or in the most difficult of spaces when both were required.

You’d skipped out on the suggested bonding practices that predated production and have maybe said 5 words to him directly when not in character. Though he’s tried numerous times to bridge the gap.

You continued to tell yourself it wasn’t unprofessional, you were simply protecting yourself. You wondered if your faux indifference would make for awkward promo after the film’s end but hadn’t thought that far in advance.

You were an actress after all. You knew how to fake it so you weren’t actually that concerned.

But this was the first time on one of your only days off that the director wanted you to meet her at a new location prior to shooting there.

Your reverence for her work made the inconvenience well worth it. Even in the middle of a very chilly fall in New York.

While waiting for the elevator doors to open in a rickety old building, you see Noah approaching.

You hadn’t realized you had both been called for this specific task. You’re instantly annoyed and pull your jacket around yourself snuggly.

He looks just as surprised to see you but doesn’t say anything.

You wait for the elevator in complete silence which seems to be taking literal years to make it down to the first floor, the little illuminating button almost taunting you with its beaming.

Finally, the doors slowly open and you walk in, he follows you a few paces behind.

He casually leans against the opposite side of the elevator and watches you push the button for the 7th floor.

“You know what this is about?” Noah finally says loosely, you can feel the weight of his gaze on the side of your face.

You shake your head lightly.

“It’s cold today,” he offers.

He’s talking about the weather and you want to die. You want to just vanish into a million little pieces.

You hate talking about the weather. You hate small talk with a passion that rivals little else.

Small talk was a waste of energy and vocal undulations.

You offer no verbal response.

Suddenly, the elevator jolts, sending you toward the button panel and then immediately stills.

Your ears start to ring as you immediately realize what just happened. You can tell Noah is saying something but you can’t make it out.

“No… no, no…” you mutter as you hit the panel. You try the emergency button, nothing. Then you hit any button in a desperate attempt to get the elevator moving again.

You feel your stomach drop when nothing happens.

“Shit,” you kick the bottom of the door which causes a jolt of pain to shoot through your foot.

You remember he’s there when you feel his hands brushing yours away from the panel.

“Don’t do that, you’ll only jam it,” Noah explains, calmly.

You angle away from his touch.

“Don’t touch me,” you mutter. You almost think you said it in your head until you look at him and realize his expression has gone from concerned to confused.

“You’re right,” Noah admits quickly, he takes a step away from you. “I’m sorry. I shouldn't have touched you.”

Pain radiates from you booted foot.

“Fuck, that hurt,” you complain, attempting to put weight on your foot.

“Yeah, well elevator’s are made of steel,” Noah remarks as he takes out his phone. “No service.”

“Ugh,” you mutter as you squeeze your eyes shut against the ever impending reality of your current circumstance. You quickly glance at your phone. “Damnit!”

You repress the urge to throw it against the closed steel doors.

“What did I do to deserve this?” You demand to the unmoving metal.

“Someone will notice the elevator isn’t working,” Noah reasons gently. He’s retreated back to his corner.

“In this damn near deserted building?”

“Right.”

Silence looms as you attempt to slow your racing heart by pulling some deep breaths.

“How are you so calm?” You accuse.

He shrugs. He’s studying you. The way he sometimes did. The way he did when you were on set, or running lines with someone else or at dinner with the entire cast. You’ve caught him quietly contemplating some aspect of you and always immediately acted as if you didn’t see it.

You had a feeling he was always trying to silently figure you out.

But you weren’t budging. You refused to fall for whatever guise he operated under.

“I just don’t feel the need to freak out,” he offers simply. “It’ll start working again.”

You huff and continue to glare at the elevator panel.

Of course the universe would conspire to have you stuck in an elevator with this man. That’s exactly what type of track you were on personally.

Even if your professional life was flourishing, your personal life and emotional safety weren’t necessarily corresponding.

“I can take a look at your foot if you want,” Noah offered loosely.

“Does that line typically work for you?”

“Don’t really have much occasion to use it,” he countered without missing a beat. “Can’t say that I’ve seen many women kick steel elevator doors.”

“You aren’t a doctor,” you exclaim. “You wouldn’t even know what to look for. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

You silently stare at the doors, willing the elevator to start back up again. You really need to get out of there.

“Hey, listen… if I ever did or said something to offend you, I’m really sorry,” he offers evenly.

You still can’t look at him but you feel momentarily bad until you realize that this softness, this unending affable posturing that he seemed to be angling at wasn’t gonna work on you.

You’ve been a sucker before and those days were long gone.

“You didn’t offend me, Noah,” you begin carefully. Your anxiety still looming at the reality of this enclosed space. “I just don’t buy it.”

“I’m sorry, what? What don’t you buy?”

“Your whole schtick. The act,” you respond. “The effortlessly charming ‘nice guy.’ The internet’s boyfriend. Maybe everyone else eats it up, but I see right through it.”

There’s silence on the tail end of your claim. You almost want to look at his expression after your admission but feel it better to keep your attention outward.

Then you hear a small chuckle and you’re instantly infuriated.

“When did you become an expert on ‘schtick’s’?” He questions. “Is it a class you can take?”

“Fuck you-”

He completely bypasses that remark.

“Do you typically so easily pass judgment on people without knowing them or is that a specific distinction I get the privilege of.”

“I don’t need to know you to be able to peep your whole game,” you retort.

You finally do look at him. His arms and legs crossed, leaning against the elevator. The way he’s holding his body reminds you of the easy posture of someone who looks like he’s lying down while upright. Utterly relaxed. His gaze is unflinching.

“There is no game,” Noah corrects. “I’m not the way I am for any type of personal gain.”

You laugh now. You think that maybe mirroring his own reactions will somehow allow you to calm down and make you less unnerved by his own ease. Because all it’s actually doing is making you more irritated.

“No gain? Besides everyone thinking you hung the moon, right? Okay.”

“You’re wrong,” he offers simply.

“That’s doubtful.”

“It’s actually unfortunate that you’ve relied so heavily on this narrative that’s a complete fabrication,” Noah responds. “Because if you hadn’t, then maybe we’d actually be friends or at least civil and you wouldn’t be standing in a stalled elevator seething because of some misguided hatred.”

“Oh my God,” you lament loudly, turning back to the elevator and banging on the door. “Let me out of here!”

“That won’t help.”

“Please stop talking.”

“Sure.”

He goes silent and the silence is almost worse than hearing his incessant gabbing.

You feel a well of emotion come up dissimilar to the anger and terror you’d been trying to mask since the elevator stopped.

“You men are the fucking worst,” you mutter, not even to him directly but you know he hears you.

“What’s his name?”

“Who?”

“Whoever has you out here distrusting complete strangers,” Noah ponders.

“Names, plural. Your kind are real winners,” you remark, taking a deep breath in an attempt to try and subside some of the sadness creeping in.

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying that. You are also not a complete stranger. You have a very public persona.”

“As do you,” Noah reminds you. “Or one that’s been crafted around your relationship at least, but unlike you, I don’t necessarily believe it.”

You prickle at that. Just the mention of your ex sends you to another realm you can’t really occupy in such close quarters. You feel like the elevator is much too small for all the vitriol you hold for him and your memories.  

“I’m not talking to Disney channel’s wonder child about any of this.”

“You’re mean,” he observes lightly. But he doesn’t actually seem offended. Which is weird to you.

Were you trying to break him? Trying to rile him? What were you actually doing besides internally screaming for something?

“But maybe not as much as I originally thought,” Noah continues thoughtfully. “If I’m honest, it sort of hurt my feelings that you were so kind to everyone else. I tried not to take it personally. But more than mean I think you’re hurt.”

“Please do me a favor and don’t ever fix your mouth in an attempt to psychoanalyze me again.”

You look up at the elevators mirrored ceiling and let out a primal scream. Once it’s out, you bend over, bracing yourself with your hands against your knees, just praying that the elevator will start working.

You silently count to 10 with your eyes squeezed shut. When you open them there’s no change.

You feel worse.

“We’re gonna die in here,” you say desperately.

“We will not die in here,” Noah assures you.

“What do you know?”

“It’s a shame our characters don’t hate each other,” Noah offers thoughtfully. “You’d have a head start.”

“You’re not important enough to hate, Noah,” you exclaim bitterly.

“Ouch.”

You feel yourself vacillating between anger, fear, sadness, and panic. All emotions you don’t want anywhere near this man you’ve kept at an arm's length.

“Will you stop looking at me?” You’ve felt his eyes on you intermittently the entire time and the longer that continues, the more unnerved you become.

“Where else am I supposed to look?”

You can tell he’s trying to be playful. Which is maddening and also a bit sweet because you momentarily forget you’re freaking out.

“Anywhere else.”

“I’m looking at you because you’re trembling,” Noah offers gently.

“It’s fucking freezing.”

“Hey, look at me,” Noah requests after a moment. It takes you a full 7 seconds to bring yourself to do as he says.

His gaze is so gentle and innocent, you almost feel like you’ll burst into tears just looking at him.

“I will not hurt you.”

Those words hit you with every ounce of sincerity they are uttered alongside.

You instantly believe him and you’re pissed about it.

He straightens and walks toward you. Which is only about two paces in that elevator. His hand’s tentatively on your shoulder and it’s only then when you physically feel just how much you are shaking.

“Is this okay?”

You nod your head wordlessly. He outstretches his other arm and with the most subtle movements, wraps you into a light hug.

You lean against him instantly, your body finally being cued to relax for the first time since the elevator stalled. Your hands come up and grasp the sides of his jacket, your ear against his chest.

He tightens his arms around you as you sink further into his warmth.

“Your heart is racing,” he mutters.

“Anxiety,” you sigh. “How are you so warm?”

“I don’t know, I just run hot.”

Being in his arms feels so good. You want to believe it’s just his body heat and the lack of your own but it’s something else. Something that pulls at the pit of your stomach and knaws at your conscious.

If someone would have told you, even 12 hours ago, that Noah would be holding you in this moment, you would have laughed in their face.

Maybe you were wrong about him.

That realization makes your heart drop and all the myriad of emotions that well up in you are steeped in regret and embarrassment.

He’s being so sweet to you and you’ve been nothing but a pain in the ass.

You feel your eyes burn with tears as you wrap your arms completely around him beneath his jacket.

“I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch to you,” you mutter. You attempt to school your tears but they won’t be reasoned with.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” you exclaim against his chest, your voice breaking. “I have such a shitty track record with charming men, I just clammed up. I didn’t even get to know you on a basic human level and that’s so embarrassing. I’m so sorry.”

The tears are flowing now and you feel absolutely mortified.

He pulls back briefly just to peer into your face. He wordlessly wipes away your tears and envelops you back into his arms. This only makes you cry harder.

Where did this deep generosity come from? Why was he so willing to freely give it?

“Shhhh,” Noah offers, resting his cheek against the top of your head. “It’s okay.”

“It’s so fucked up,” you cry into his chest. You don’t know where these tears are even coming from, or why you feel safe enough to unload them with him in this moment.

There’s a lot there that you haven’t even begun to speak of.

He’s back to wiping your tears away and his eyes look like the most delectable mixture of honey and amber and you feel certain you’re in the Twilight zone because all you want to do is kiss him as your eyes flick toward his mouth.

But you wouldn’t dare… it feels like too big a stretch and you aren’t that brave.

[mediarevolt]

Solidarity Statement

As pro-revolutionists committed to cultivating revolution, many often look to coalitions to do the work of collaboration and moving with the oppressed towards revolutionary practice. In actuality, when we work together it's important to not only iron where we agree and have affinity, but where we disagree and where our affinity diverges, where our strategies might actually be counter to one another: i.e. antagonisms. So that we are not surprised in the future, and we don't flatten struggles for the sake of false unity.

In Los Angeles, or more accurately, occupied Tongva land, in regards to the recent call to ban and isolate the Psyco Brigade/las O.V.A.s/La Conxa, and Defend NELA and the less recent decision to kick them out of the Defend Boyle Heights coalition:

There is information conveniently being left out of the conversation by DBH - namely, that the Los Angeles Red Guards and, their front-group project Serve the People, (coalition members of Defend Boyle Heights) were previously banned from the La Conxa space last year 2018 June due to predatory mactivist behavior and recruitment tactics.

The OVA’s/Pscyo Brigade was kicked out from the Defend Boyle Heights coalition after they had started detailing "red flags," or concerning dynamics and behaviors by coalition members: which had resulted in boundaries being set to exclude Red Guards and STP-LA from La Conxa. Just prior to making a presentation on these red flags within the Defend Boyle Heights Coalition, they were kicked out of the coalition for what they call “identity opportunism”. *Essentially, this term describes a tenet of Maoist ideology. Mainly that “identity politics” is seen as a non-politics since it does not build-up to their desired unified Maoist party line. So then, for Maoists “identity opportunists” are those who they conceive as using their identity as a way to push an agenda other than Maoism. A topsy-turvy inversion of the notion of identity as a site of varied oppressions.

Since the call for isolation was released one of the signees has come forward disclosing that they did not consent to signing the statement and actually contradicted the narrative of events set forth in the statement (the O.V.A.’s were not kicked out of an event for death threats). This, and other information, casts serious doubt on the alleged death threats and the credibility of the statement in its entirety.

Consequently the drafters of this statement want to offer some solidarity, counter-narrative and perspective to those being asked to sign onto the ban and enforce isolation of the Psyco Brigade/OVAS.

We remind ourselves of the autonomy and resilience of groups and people free to respond however they desire/need to, defensively or offensively, to predatory recruitment tactics by overt vanguardist organizations. For the purposes of this paper, vanguardist organizations refer to groups who themselves claim vanguardism as a central strategy of their intent, purpose and organizing. Those vanguardist entities which position themselves as the higher authority or specialized professionals in the liberatory movements of oppressed people- the saviors, gatekeepers, proselytizers and managers reproduced in resistance movements.

We support the role of self and communal determination in combating rank opportunism by left-authoritarian organizations working under the cover of coalitions. To be in coalition is to be in collaboration. Coalitions often hold space for multiple affinities with some strong clear principles and boundaries that bring people together for a shared goal or desired outcome.  Some of these left orgs use coalitions as cover to recruit people to their ideology and specifically, their party or organization, and then isolate those who they view as "competition" in the ideological social war when recruitment does not go according to plan. By left-authoritarian we mean those in the broad leftwing who view hierarchy, coercion, state-power, organized authority and policing as a means to an end: sometimes known as authoritarian socialism or communism.

We oppose predatory behavior and macktivism for the purposes of recruitment, gaining information and access to space and communities, resulting in collectives and spaces  feeling infiltrated. Infiltration is not just an overt act from state agents, but tactics used to gain and manipulate information, access and people, by those convinced their own goals outweigh the dynamics it takes to get there (their ends justify their means).  This is not the spirit of collaboration, camaraderie and liberation we seek and spark, which definitely holds within it space for disagreement and rupture. This is symptomatic of an authoritarian tendency in organizing that seeks to control and manipulate instead of empower us to engage in our own liberation.  We do not embrace a false equivalence, or conception of liberal notions of equality, by presuming infiltration is weaponized against all genders the same way, toward the same end, with the same impact.

Ideological divisions exist and have been amplified as the OVAs/Psyco Brigade has developed their commitment to collective autonomy and revolution which leans more toward autonomy, self-organization and a flattening of hierarchies. This cannot be overlooked as a key ideological divide with some of the forces at play within Defend Boyle Heights.

Gender (and race, ability, sexuality, and more) is not a secondary identity to that of the exploited worker /proletariat engaged in class war. We are, of any gender, engaged in class war. We are, as women, as nonbinary folks, as trans and gender nonconforming people, as men, engaged in class war in particular ways that include all of the iterations in which class war shows up in our lives. We will not, as the below quote by Red Guards LA posits, wait until after a theoretical socialist revolution to use subsequent waves of revolution to "collectivize domestic/reproductive labor" to resolve "the contradiction between men and women". The contradiction is truly in the daily enforcement of gender as yet another role and job under capitalism and society that is associated with treatment/mistreatment and produces (and is produced by) bosses, masters, and #theotherPig. We will not attack capitalism without also attacking this society. This is not a distraction from class war, this is an amplification of class war." "After the revolution the socialist construction of the dictatorship of the proletariat with a reconstruction and collectivization of domestic/reproductive labor will initially resolve the contradiction between men and women. Subsequent cultural revolutions can also resolve the more aggressive residue patriarchal ideas that linger on as the dying old ideas of a dying old world."

As a coalition that has repeatedly and openly not only called for violence, but shamed others for not being down for "revolutionary violence" we find their response to these unsubstantiated death threats to be disingenuous and oddly opportunistic ideologically. Threats of death are serious accusations that concern trust, safety and security and should have nothing to do with DBH’s purported qualifications and judgment of the O.V.As as revolutionary or not. In fact, it is common for women in revolutionary movements to be used for their anger and furious organizing efforts until it is no longer convenient or threatens an established order of things. Bash back, which is a hxstoricaly queer, trans, lgbtq, women, femme direct response tactic, has always been a form of communal defense and revolutionary violence. For example, in 2014 Queerpocalypse descended on the Los Angeles Anarchist bookfair flipping tables and posting up outside the event, in a rejection of “inclusivity” models dealing with queer representation in anarchism and leftism. Folks were agitating the space, addressing centuries long antagonisms between default representation politics, hetnormativity in organizing spaces and the reality of struggle and oppression, especially within “anarchist” spaces. Lived experience and agitation sometimes rises to meet and challenge our theoretical revolutionary spaces- this is not identity opportunism. We insist on inviting our whole selves into our movements or they are not our movements; and we refuse for our participation to be reduced to another form in which we are treated as exploitable workers devoid of our actual selves.

Beware the forces you breathe life into. It is one thing to call for a boycott of local businesses or nonprofits and expect automatic compliance.  It is another to apply  the same tactic and strategy on more autonomously self-organized collectives and spaces. We will not fault the OVAs/Psyco Brigade for being who they have always been, women and marginalized genders self-organized toward revolution, and growing into understandings that do not fall in line with left-authoritarian ideologies.

"A lack of accountability to a higher power" is often weaponized against autonomous folks or anarchists in an intent to portray us as independent and unrelated to the communities we organize in. Defend Boyle Heights is not the higher power we are looking to empower to regulate self-organized community efforts that don’t align or fall in line with their ideology or strategy. Are you?

We have seen time and time again: even abusers and misogynists receive the benefit of the doubt of Transformative Justice processes, and it is suspicious to see no commentary or transparency detailing any attempts to resolve this issue or address the underlying root issues being dismissed as “identity opportunism”.  We look to other iterations in Los Angeles in which figureheads, leaders and organizations have fallen under intense, necessary but methodical scrutiny complete with fact-finding, testimony and even tribunals. Even in such cases arising to the occasion of physical violence and abuse in the name of revolution, after evidence, proof and process that had been gathered, the entire organization was not banned or called to disband. It is one thing to dissociate, break coalition, rupture, and another entirely to call for isolation and actively campaign for isolation.

Collective autonomy- collective disposability we oppose the isolation of a radical collective in its entirety due to the actions or threats of a few. This is not accountability, but collective punishment. Even as we recognize the autonomy of each person and the responsibility of our organizing efforts to hold ourselves accountable, to call for such a broad ban and isolation without due diligence and full transparency of the above details regarding coalition member organizations is negligent, amounts to gatekeeping and reminds us of carceral politics that would dispose of community members altogether with no attention to interpersonal hxstories and real-time dynamics.

Further:

We recognize that not all our comrades are familiar with the differences in principles, strategies and tactics between left authoritarian v. more autonomous anti authoritarian organizing within leftist and revolutionary frameworks and communities in general. We caution against dismissing these contradictions as “sectarianism” when there are real time behaviors and interpersonal dynamics in organizing practice that show up according to these lines.

We know these dynamics and contradictions between revolutionist ideologies are not limited to this time and place. We encourage others to detail their “red flags” and how authoritarian leftism is showing up in their communities, at the cost of their autonomous & anti-authoritarian organizing.

DBH takes an openly-Maoist line against identity politics which views any sort of attention to identity, other than one’s class position, as being liberal, revisionist or anti-communist. Those of us drafting this piece come from a variety of identities and understand that our lived experience goes beyond our class-belonging (but also includes it): women are harassed on the streets regardless of class; Black people are subjected to gratuitous violence by the police regardless of income; queer people are coerced into heteronormative lifestyles regardless of their job title and people with disabilities which make the sale of their labor-power difficult still are forced to pay for their own livelihood. To say these identities are inconsequential is not only offensive, it deeply misunderstands the nature of the capitalist society we live in and therefore defaults to /privileges entrenched power systems inextricably interlocked with capitalism.  But DBH calls attention to all this “identity-opportunism.” As though there is any explicitly gained opportunity, and at the expense of the community or liberatory efforts, to being a woman, a Black person, queer, or a person with a disability, or facing the multiplicity of these experiences in this capitalist, hierarchical and authoritarian structured world.

Conclusion: those of us that have drafted this statement are not locked-away in our ivory towers, writing out abstract essays for academic consumption. We’ve been involved in organizing, creating radical propaganda, putting on events, facilitating workshops, hitting the streets and other forms of radical action, solidarity & mutual aid. We write this because we know how destructive this type of Left-Authoritarian organizing is to the goals we have and we must defend each other against these types of attacks whether from the Left or the Right.

- Some Pissed Off 'Los Angeles' Anti-Authoritarians

[loveofyhwh]

September 16: Proverbs 21–22; Titus 1:5–16; Psalm 71; Proverbs 23:22–25

New Post has been published on https://loveofyhwh.com/september-16-proverbs-21-22-titus-15-16-psalm-71-proverbs-2322-25/

September 16: Proverbs 21–22; Titus 1:5–16; Psalm 71; Proverbs 23:22–25

Old Testament:

Proverbs 21–22

Proverbs 21–22 (Listen)

21   The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;     he turns it wherever he will. 2   Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,     but the LORD weighs the heart. 3   To do righteousness and justice     is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. 4   Haughty eyes and a proud heart,     the lampOr the plowing‘>1 of the wicked, are sin. 5   The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,     but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. 6   The getting of treasures by a lying tongue     is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Latin; most Hebrew manuscripts vapor for those who seek death‘>2 7   The violence of the wicked will sweep them away,     because they refuse to do what is just. 8   The way of the guilty is crooked,     but the conduct of the pure is upright. 9   It is better to live in a corner of the housetop     than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. 10   The soul of the wicked desires evil;     his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes. 11   When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise;     when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge. 12   The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked;     he throws the wicked down to ruin. 13   Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor     will himself call out and not be answered. 14   A gift in secret averts anger,     and a concealed bribe,Hebrew a bribe in the bosom‘>3 strong wrath. 15   When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous     but terror to evildoers. 16   One who wanders from the way of good sense     will rest in the assembly of the dead. 17   Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man;     he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. 18   The wicked is a ransom for the righteous,     and the traitor for the upright. 19   It is better to live in a desert land     than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. 20   Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling,     but a foolish man devours it. 21   Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness     will find life, righteousness, and honor. 22   A wise man scales the city of the mighty     and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. 23   Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue     keeps himself out of trouble. 24   “Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man     who acts with arrogant pride. 25   The desire of the sluggard kills him,     for his hands refuse to labor. 26   All day long he craves and craves,     but the righteous gives and does not hold back. 27   The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination;     how much more when he brings it with evil intent. 28   A false witness will perish,     but the word of a man who hears will endure. 29   A wicked man puts on a bold face,     but the upright gives thought toOr establishes‘>4 his ways. 30   No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel     can avail against the LORD. 31   The horse is made ready for the day of battle,     but the victory belongs to the LORD. 22   A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,     and favor is better than silver or gold. 2   The rich and the poor meet together;     the LORD is the Maker of them all. 3   The prudent sees danger and hides himself,     but the simple go on and suffer for it. 4   The reward for humility and fear of the LORD     is riches and honor and life.Or The reward for humility is the fear of the Lord, riches and honor and life‘>5 5   Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;     whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. 6   Train up a child in the way he should go;     even when he is old he will not depart from it. 7   The rich rules over the poor,     and the borrower is the slave of the lender. 8   Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,     and the rod of his fury will fail. 9   Whoever has a bountifulHebrew good‘>6 eye will be blessed,     for he shares his bread with the poor. 10   Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out,     and quarreling and abuse will cease. 11   He who loves purity of heart,     and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend. 12   The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge,     but he overthrows the words of the traitor. 13   The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!     I shall be killed in the streets!” 14   The mouth of forbiddenHebrew strange‘>7 women is a deep pit;     he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it. 15   Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,     but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. 16   Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,     or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

Words of the Wise

17   Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise,     and apply your heart to my knowledge, 18   for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,     if all of them are ready on your lips. 19   That your trust may be in the LORD,     I have made them known to you today, even to you. 20   Have I not written for you thirty sayings     of counsel and knowledge, 21   to make you know what is right and true,     that you may give a true answer to those who sent you? 22   Do not rob the poor, because he is poor,     or crush the afflicted at the gate, 23   for the LORD will plead their cause     and rob of life those who rob them. 24   Make no friendship with a man given to anger,     nor go with a wrathful man, 25   lest you learn his ways     and entangle yourself in a snare. 26   Be not one of those who give pledges,     who put up security for debts. 27   If you have nothing with which to pay,     why should your bed be taken from under you? 28   Do not move the ancient landmark     that your fathers have set. 29   Do you see a man skillful in his work?     He will stand before kings;     he will not stand before obscure men.

Footnotes

[1] 21:4 Or the plowing [2] 21:6 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Latin; most Hebrew manuscripts vapor for those who seek death [3] 21:14 Hebrew a bribe in the bosom [4] 21:29 Or establishes [5] 22:4 Or The reward for humility is the fear of the Lord, riches and honor and life [6] 22:9 Hebrew good [7] 22:14 Hebrew strange

(ESV)

New Testament:

Titus 1:5–16

Titus 1:5–16 (Listen)

Qualifications for Elders

5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife,Or a man of one woman‘>1 and his children are believersOr are faithful‘>2 and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer,Or bishop; Greek episkopos‘>3 as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in soundOr healthy; also verse 13‘>4 doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.Or especially those of the circumcision‘>5 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 One of the Cretans,Greek One of them‘>6 a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”Probably from Epimenides of Crete‘>7 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Footnotes

[1] 1:6 Or a man of one woman [2] 1:6 Or are faithful [3] 1:7 Or bishop; Greek episkopos [4] 1:9 Or healthy; also verse 13 [5] 1:10 Or especially those of the circumcision [6] 1:12 Greek One of them [7] 1:12 Probably from Epimenides of Crete

(ESV)

Psalm:

Psalm 71

Psalm 71 (Listen)

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

71   In you, O LORD, do I take refuge;     let me never be put to shame! 2   In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;     incline your ear to me, and save me! 3   Be to me a rock of refuge,     to which I may continually come;   you have given the command to save me,     for you are my rock and my fortress. 4   Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,     from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. 5   For you, O Lord, are my hope,     my trust, O LORD, from my youth. 6   Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;     you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.   My praise is continually of you. 7   I have been as a portent to many,     but you are my strong refuge. 8   My mouth is filled with your praise,     and with your glory all the day. 9   Do not cast me off in the time of old age;     forsake me not when my strength is spent. 10   For my enemies speak concerning me;     those who watch for my life consult together 11   and say, “God has forsaken him;     pursue and seize him,     for there is none to deliver him.” 12   O God, be not far from me;     O my God, make haste to help me! 13   May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;     with scorn and disgrace may they be covered     who seek my hurt. 14   But I will hope continually     and will praise you yet more and more. 15   My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,     of your deeds of salvation all the day,     for their number is past my knowledge. 16   With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;     I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. 17   O God, from my youth you have taught me,     and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 18   So even to old age and gray hairs,     O God, do not forsake me,   until I proclaim your might to another generation,     your power to all those to come. 19   Your righteousness, O God,     reaches the high heavens.   You who have done great things,     O God, who is like you? 20   You who have made me see many troubles and calamities     will revive me again;   from the depths of the earth     you will bring me up again. 21   You will increase my greatness     and comfort me again. 22   I will also praise you with the harp     for your faithfulness, O my God;   I will sing praises to you with the lyre,     O Holy One of Israel. 23   My lips will shout for joy,     when I sing praises to you;     my soul also, which you have redeemed. 24   And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,   for they have been put to shame and disappointed     who sought to do me hurt.

(ESV)

Proverb:

Proverbs 23:22–25

Proverbs 23:22–25 (Listen)

22   Listen to your father who gave you life,     and do not despise your mother when she is old. 23   Buy truth, and do not sell it;     buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. 24   The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;     he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. 25   Let your father and mother be glad;     let her who bore you rejoice.

(ESV)

[rootofjesse]

(Lyrics) Jesse's God Sends Sinning Angels To Hell

SoundCloud Player Version

Music, Lyrics and Spoken Words by Leslie aka Jesse Hughes ©

 The provided lyrics for ‘Jesse’s God Sends Sinning Angels To Hell:

SoundCloud Player Version’ comes from Jesse’s Spoken Word and Song Versions of:

‘Rejoice the Devils are in Hell’:

 Celebrate! Rejoice!

Celebrate! Rejoice!

The devils and the Lucifers and Satans are in hell

Celebrate! Rejoice!

Celebrate! Rejoice!

The demons and the brute beasts and the witches are in hell

 Rejoice, O Nations, with his people (Dt 32:15-43)

For the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord, will avenge the blood of his servants

And he will take vengeance on his enemies, and repay those who hate him

For the Holy Spirit’s sharpened flashing sword will be grasped in judgment

And we will have the heads of the enemy leaders at the synagogue of Satan

Who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars (Rev 3:9)

Because they are devils, Lucifers and Satans, demons, brute beasts and witches

Who deny that Jesus Christ is our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude)

And who lie to the Holy Spirit with their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:1-11)

And the Holy Spirit will make atonement for his land and his people (Dt 32:15-43)

When we make captive these captors, and rule over these oppressors (Isa 14:1-23)

On the day the Spirit who is the Lord gives us relief from the suffering, turmoil and cruel bondage

We will take up this taunt and recite this proverb against the devils, Lucifers and Satans

How the oppressor has come to an end, how his fury has ended

The Spirit who is the Lord, and Jesus who is both the Lord and the Christ

Has broken the rod of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers

Which in anger struck down the peoples with unceasing blows

And in fury subdued the nations with relentless aggression

Now all the lands are at rest and at peace, and they break into singing

Even the pine trees and the ceders of Lebanon exult over you and say

Now that you have been laid low no woodsman comes to cut us down today

 For God does not spare angels when they sin (2Pt 2:1-4)

But sends them straight to hell

To be bound in gloomy dungeons for judgment on the Great Day (spoken of in Jude)

For they are the godless, ungodly sinners who worship a non-God, not a God, no God (Dt 32:15-43)

A worthless, detestable idol they sacrifice to demons, which are not God

And they are the men whose condemnation was written about long ago (Jude)

Who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality

And deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord

And although you already know all this, I want to remind you

That the Lord Jesus delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their own home

These he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the Great Day

In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns

Gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion

They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire

For they are the wicked men who suppressed the truth by their wickedness (Ro 1:18-32)

And exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve images of the beast

Rather than the Creator, who is over all and forever praised Amen

And they have become full of every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice

They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful

They invent ways of doing evil, they disobey their parents

Who bear witness to their lies to the Holy Spirit, and their murder of John’s father Zechariah

(Acts 5:1-11, Lk 11:37-52, Mt 23:1-37, Isa 14:1-23, Dt 32:15-43)

They are senseless, faithless, heartless and ruthless (Ro 1:18-32)

And although they know that God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death

They not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them

Showing contempt for the riches of God Almighty’s kindness, tolerance and patience (Ro 2:4-5)

Not realizing that God’s kindness is to lead them to repentance

But because of their stubbornness and unrepentant heart

They are storing up wrath against themselves

For the day when God Almighty’s righteous judgments will be revealed

For God will give to each person according to what he has done  

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality

He will give eternal life

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil

There will be wrath and anger

 For God does not spare angels when they sin (2Pt 2:1-4)

But sends them straight to hell

To be bound in gloomy dungeons for judgment on the Great Day (spoken of in Jude)

For they are the godless, ungodly sinners who worship a non-God, not a God, no God (Dt 32:15-43)

A worthless, detestable idol they sacrifice to demons, which are not God

And they are the false prophets and false teachers among the people (2Pt 2:1-19)

Secretly introducing destructive heresies, even denying the Sovereign Lord who bought them

Bringing swift destruction upon themselves

Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute

For in their greed these false teachers will exploit the people with stories they have made up

And their condemnation has long been hanging over them

And their destruction has not been sleeping

For they are the men whose condemnation was written about long ago (Jude)

Who lie to the Holy Spirit with their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:3)

And blaspheme in matters they do not understand (2Pt 2:12-19)

For they are like brute beasts, and creatures of instinct

Born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish

And they will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done

To the Lambs of Philip, Phyllis, Stephanie and Stephan

Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight

They are the blots and blemishes, reviling in their pleasures while they feast with you

With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning

They seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed, an accused brood

And these men are the springs without water, and mists driven by a storm

For whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever

For they mouth empty boastful words, and by appealing to the lusts of sinful human nature

They entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error

And they are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud and abusive  (2Ti 3:1-9)

Who are disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous

Without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited

Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the form of godliness but denying its power

And we will have nothing to do with them

For they are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women

Who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires

Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth

They are men of depraved minds, who as far as faith is concerned, they are rejected

But they will not get very far because, as in the case of these men

Their folly will be clear to everyone they are merely demons

 For God does not spare angels when they sin (2Pt 2:1-4)

But sends them straight to hell

To be bound in gloomy dungeons for judgment on the Great Day (spoken of in Jude)

For they are the godless, ungodly sinners who worship a non-God, not a God, no God (Dt 32:15-43)

A worthless, detestable idol they sacrifice to demons, which are not God

And they are the rebellious people, who are mere talkers and deceivers (Titus 1:10-16)

Especially those of the circumcision group

And they must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households

By teaching things they ought not to teach-and that for the sake of dishonest gain

It was one of themselves, one of their own prophets, who said

"Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, and lazy gluttons"

This testimony is true

Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith

And will pay no attention to Jewish myths

Or to the commands of those who reject the truth

For to the pure, all things are pure

But to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure

In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him

They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good

For they are the wicked men who suppress the truth by their wickedness (Ro 1:18)

And spread error concerning our Lord, who is the Spirit (Isa 32:1-8, Isa 11, 2Co 3:17)

By creating pretend gods with made up stories

And by lying to the Holy Spirit with their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:3)

Therefore they will serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire (Jude)

So prepare a place for the slaughter of Lucifer’s sons (Isa 14:1-23)

For the sins of their forefathers

They are not to rise to inherit the land, or cover the earth with their cities

For the Lord Almighty will rise against them and cut off their names and survivors

And they will have no offspring or descendants

For the offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again

Declares the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and Jesus who is the Lord and the Christ

For they will be swept away by a broom of destruction

And slaughtered in a swampland

Where the owls hoot will be heard proclaiming

God Almighty is the one Who Is, Who Was and Who Is to Come

(God Almighty and Son of God Revelation timeline references: Rev 1:8, Rev 12:10, Rev 16:5,

Rev 21:6 and Rev 22:13)

Not an image of the beast no god detestable worthless idol Sabbath day gog frog

(Deut 32:15-43, Rev 17:8-11, 2Th 2:4, Ex 6:2-4, Eze 8:5, Eze 20:25, Eze 44:2, 2Co 11:13-15,

Rev 13:11-18, Rev 16:13-14, Rev 17:14, Rev 19:11-21)

Who once was, now is not, and yet will come out of the Abyss (Rev 17:8-11)

And go to his destruction

For they are slave son Ishmaelites born from the flesh in the ordinary way (Gal 4:21-31, Ge 21:9-10)

Who attempt to persecute the free Son born from Jerusalem Above (Gal 4:21-31)

And who will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son (Gal 4:21-31, Ge 21:9-10)

For they are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword (Isa 14:18)

For these dreamers pollute their own bodies (Jude)

And they are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside (Mt 23:27-28)

But on the inside they are filled with dead men bones, and everything unclean

In the same way on the outside they appear to people as righteous

But on the inside they are full of hypocrisy and wickedness

They reject authority and slander celestial beings

For these men whose condemnation was written about long ago

Speak abusively against whatever they do not understand

And what things they do understand by instinct

Like unreasoning animals-these are the very things that destroy them

So woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain

They have rushed for profit into Balaam's error

They have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion

For these men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm

Shepherds who feed only themselves

They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind

Autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted-twice dead

They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame

Wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men

"See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones

To judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly

Of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way

And of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him"

For these men whose condemnation was written about long ago

Are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires

And they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold

They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers

Who will follow their own ungodly desires"

These are the men who divide you

Who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith

And pray in the Holy Spirit

Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy

Of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life

Be merciful to those who doubt, snatch others from the fire and save them

To others show mercy, mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh

To him who is able to keep you from falling

And to present you before his glorious presence

Without fault and with great joy

To the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority

Through Jesus Christ our Lord

Before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen

 For God does not spare angels when they sin (2Pt 2:1-4)

But sends them straight to hell

To be bound in gloomy dungeons for judgment on the Great Day (spoken of in Jude)

For they are the godless, ungodly sinners who worship a non-God, not a God, no God (Dt 32:15-43)

A worthless, detestable idol they sacrifice to demons, which are not God

Who lie to the Holy Spirit with their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:1-11)

And who lie not only to men but to God Almighty

Who are the cowardly men who make lies their refuge (Rev 21:8)

And falsehood their hiding place (Isa 28:9-22)

Who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord (Isa 29: 15)

And who do their work in darkness and think

"Who sees us? Who will know?"

Whose shameful ways bring the way of truth into disrepute (2Pt 2:1-4)

And with their false humility, idol notions and their worship of devil angels (Col 2:18)

They masquerade as apostles of Christ

They masquerade as angels of light

And they masquerade as servants of righteousness

Especially those of the circumcision group (Titus 1:1-10)

Who are the false prophets and false teachers among the people (2Pt:1-4)

Who are the mere talkers and deceivers (Titus 1:1-10)

Ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach

And that for dishonest gain

Who are also the unbelieving men (Jude 1:5-7, Rev 21:8)

Who do not believe our Lord Jesus delivers his people out of Egypt

Who are the sinning angels that do not keep their positions of authority (Jude 1:5-7, 2Pt 2:4)

But abandon their own home

Who despise the council of the Most High

And rebel against the words of God (Ps 107:11)

And who will have none of the repentance, rest and salvation (Isa 30:15-17)

The quietness, trust and strength

The Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel provides them

Who instead flee on swift horses masquerading as apostles of Christ

Because the message they heard was of no value to them (Heb 4:2)

For they are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good (Titus 1:1-10)

And they are also the vile men (Rev 21:8)

Who accuse, mock and slander our brothers and sisters

Before our God day and night (Jude, Rev 12:10, Rev 21:8, Isa 28:22, 1Ti 1:8-11)

With their fake morals, ceremonial washings and external regulations

(Heb 9:10, Eph 2:14-22, Mk 7:6-8, Isa 29:13-21, Eze 20:25, Eze 44:2,

Col 2:18, Col 2:23, 1Ti 4:1-7, Heb 10:1-7, Gal 5:14)

Who are slave son Ishmaelites born from the flesh in the ordinary way

(Gal 4:21-31, Ge 21:9-10)

Who attempt to persecute the free Son born from Jerusalem Above (Gal 4:21-31)

And who will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son

(Gal 4:21-31, Ge 21:9-10)

And they are the men who are murderers (Rev 21:8)

For they are the murderers of the Lambs Philip, Phyllis, Stephen and Stephanie (Rev 21:8)

Who lie to the Holy Spirit with their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:1-11)

Who worship the devil who was a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:31-58)

Not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies

And they are those who claim to be Abraham’s children

Who belong to their father that is the devil (Lk 10:18, Rev 17:8-11, Jn 8:31-58)

Who are whitewashed walls that strike down Paul

And violate the law to make him their devil Saul (Acts 23:1-3)

The observers of the law who don’t follow it at all (Acts 22:12, Ro 2:13)

By slaying James, beheading John, and seizing Peter (Acts 12:1-3, Mt 14:1-12, Mk 6:14-29)

And by binding Simeon, and deceiving Benjamin (Ge 42:24, Ge 44:2)

So they can stone and murder the Lambs of Stephen, Stephanie, Philip and Phillis

(Acts 23:1-3, Acts 8:1, Rev 21:8, 1Ti 1:8-11)

And their end will be what their actions deserve (2Co 11:13-15)

They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done to the Lambs (2Pt 2:13)

Of Stephan, Stephanie, Philip and Phyllis

And they are also the sexually immoral men (Jude 1:7, Rev 21:8)

Who degrade their bodies with one another (Ro 1:18-25)

By exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images of the beast

That they falsely call Christ (Ro 1:18-25, Jude, Rev 21:8, Rev 13:11-18, 1Co 10:1-5)

When it is Jesus who is the Christ

And it is Jesus who is the Lord (1Jn 2:18-27, Ro 10:1-13, 1Co 8:4-6)

And it is God over all who is forever praised (Ro 1:18-25, footnote Ro 9:5)

And they are the sexually immoral men who commit adultery

With God’s bride New Jerusalem (2Pt 1:13-14)

By breeding men in the image of men

And by putting aliens and strangers

At the gates of Stephen, Stephanie, Philip and Phillis (Ro 1:18-32, Heb 11:13-16, Ge 5:3)

When Herodias is our Brother Philip’s wife (Mt 14:4-5, Jude, Rev 21:8, Ro 1:18-25,

1Ti 1: 8-11, Ge 5:3)

Yet with eyes full of adultery these sexually immoral men never stop sinning (2Pt 2:14)

They seduce the unstable, they are experts in greed

And they are an accursed brood

Who are also the idolaters and liars who practice magic arts (Rev 21:8, Rev 22:15)

Who are slave traders, perjurers and liars to the Holy Ghost

With their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:1-11, 1Ti 1:8-11, Rev 21:8)

Who lie not only to men, but to God Almighty

By despising the council of the Most High

And by rebelling against the Words of God (Heb 3 & 4, Ps 107:10-12)

Who practice magic arts to demon possess souls in the name of Beelzebub

By cursing the temple of God through lies, falsehoods and extortion

So they can worm their way into homes (2Ti 3:6)

And gain control over weak-willed women

Who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires

To gain the will of God in the name of their Canaan jealous image idol

So they can pour contempt on Nobles, to make them wander in a trackless waste

(Ps 107:40)

For they are the idolaters worshipping 8th day Sabbath devil Lords

That will go to their destruction in the book of Revelation (Rev 17:8-11, Rev 21:8)

And they will be slaughtered and swept away by a broom of destruction

When the Lord Almighty, who is the Spirit, is against them (Isa 14:22-23, 2Co 3:17, Isa 11)

The very Holy Spirit all these devils lied to with their hearts filled with Satan (Acts 5:1-11)

And they will be kept in darkness and bound in everlasting chains (Jude)

Until they are thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur

Where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown

When fire comes down from Heaven above and devours them

And they will be tormented day and night

For ever and ever (Rev 20:9-10, 2Pt 2:4)

 I am a New Order, New Age and New Covenant Gospel Rock and Roller preaching the Gospel to the world in the tradition of Dylan and Springsteen. My songs and spoken words metaphorically interpret the Bible and book of Revelation, helping to shine a light upon Bob Dylan’s lyrical clues. I serve the Spirit of the Lord, and dedicate my eternal Star to serving my King the Holy Spirit of Truth (Isaiah chapter 11 and 2 Corinthians 3:17) and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor the day of the Vengeance of our God, and the New Covenant and New Order (Luke 4:18-19, Isaiah chapter 61, 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:7-13) by measuring the temple, unsealing the scroll in the book of Revelation and preaching the true metaphoric interpretation of the Gospel to the world inspired by Mt 13:35 and Ps 78:2 that states “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world." Visit my home pages to view my complete lyrics, Gospel references, notes and sketches. Thank-you to all my friends who listen to my songs and spoken words, and read my notes. Your friend and brother, Leslie aka Jesse Hughes

 Revelation Timeline references include:

God Almighty and Son of God Revelation timeline references: Rev 1:8, Rev 12:10, Rev 16:5, Rev 21:6 and Rev 22:13.

John and Son of Man Revelation timeline references:  Rev 1:4, Rev 1:17, Rev 4:8, Rev 11:17, Rev 17:8, Rev 17:11, Rev 19:10, Rev 22:8-9

 Significant Gospel references:

2Co     3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is     there is freedom”

Gal 5:14 “The entire law is summed in a single command     “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Ro 10:1-13, 1Jn 2:18-27, 1Co 8:4-6, 2Co 3:17-18 Jesus     is the Lord and Jesus is the Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Lord

Acts 13:20-23 Saul’s kingdom removed

Ro 1:18-25 The wicked men who suppress the truth

Mt 16:23, Mk 8:33 Jesus rebukes Peter and says “Get     behind me, Satan!”

Isa 32:1-8, 2Pt 2:1-4     Scoundrels no longer respected who bring the way of truth into disrepute     and spread error concerning our Lord

Jn     8:31-58 children of the devil and father of lies

2Co     11:13-15 Satan masquerades as an angel of light

Acts     4:36-5:1-11 Joseph’s property stolen by the devil and liar to the Holy     Spirit

Acts     23:1-3 Paul struck down by a whitewashed wall

Ge     41:41-43 Joseph rides a chariot in front of Pharaoh

Ge     42:24 Simeon bound

Ge     42:36, Ge 44:2, Ge 47:21, Ge 46:4, Ex 6:2-4, Jacob and Benjamin deceived

Acts     12: 1-3 James slain and Peter seized

Mt     14:1-12, Mk 6:14-29, Lk 3:19-20 John beheaded

Acts     8:30-31, 2Ti 3:15, Philip’s who never had Bible since infancy

Acts     22:12, Ro 2:13 Devout observers and those who obey the law

2Ti     3:8 Jannes and Jambres oppose Moses and the truth

Ge     9:25, Ex 6:2-4 Noah curses Canaan

Deut     32:15-43, 1Co 10:1-5, Heb 3:1 to 4:16, Heb 11:13-16 God displeased with     the disobedient images of God’s word in the human ancestry of Christ that     do not return like Enoch to the city of God

The     Books of Romans, Galatians, Jude, 2Pe 2:1-4, Titus 1:10-16, Isa 14:1-23

 Further Gospel References:  Ezekiel Chapters 29-32, Isaiah Chapters 11, 14, 28, 44 and 61, Jeremiah Chapter 46, and Jer 31:31-34, Heb 8:7-13, Rev 6:1-9, Rev 6:9-11, Rev 7:2-8, Rev 7:13-17, Rev 12:1-12, Rev 13, Mt 19:28, Rev 4 & 5, Rev 16:4-16, Rev 17:1-18, Rev 19:11-21 Rev 21 & 22, Dt 32:15-17, Jn 16:5-15,  Lk 10:18, Mt 16:23, Mk 8:33, Mt 24:27, Lk 17:22-24, Rev 4:5, Rev 19:10, Rev 22:8-9, 2Th 2:4, Rev 15:7 to Rev 16:16, Rev 12:1 to Rev 13:18,  Mt 14:1-12, Mk 6:14-12, Lk 3:19-20, Heb 3:1 to Heb 5:10, Heb 9:9-10, Zec chapter 3, Heb 8:7-13, Jer 31:31-34, Heb 10:15-18, Gal 5:14, 2Co chapter 3, the book of Jude, Tit 1:10-16, 2Pe chapter 2, Mt chapter 23, Heb 11:13-16, Ex 6:2-4, Jn 3:27-31, Jn chapter 1, 2Cor 4:4, Col 1:15, 1Co 11:3, Ro 1:18-23, Ro 10:6-9, Ro 9:5, Acts 23:1-3, Acts 24:24, Acts 5:1-10, Isa 14:3-23, 2Co 11:13-15, 1Sa 8:4-18, Isa 28:9-22, Mk 7:1-23, Ro 14:1-4, Col 2:8-23, 1Ti 4:1-7, Mt 21:24-27, Mk 11:27-33, Lk 20:1-8, Phm1:1, Phm 1:9, Phm 1:23, Acts 8:29-31, Jn 14:8-16, 1Jn 2:22-27, 2Co 3:17, Lk 4:19, 2Co 6:2, Lk 20:41-47, Mt 22:41-46, Mk 12:35-37, Gal 3:16-20, Jn 8:31-58, Rev 3:9, Ro 2:17-29, Heb 10:1-9, Heb chapter 7, Gal 5:2-14, Acts 13:20-23 and most importantly by the Holy Spirit 2Co 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”, and as Gal 5:14 says “The entire law is summed in a single command “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

 (Please note also that a Jew and Israelite in a metaphoric interpretation of the Gospel is not a person of Jewish heritage, it is a metaphor for a part of all of us that is a Jew within and another part of us that is a Gentile within -see Romans 2:28-29- and how these two parts become one in Ephesians 2:14-22, Ezekiel 37:15-17 and Romans 3:27-31, also how there are those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars- see Revelations 3:9)

 Here are some links to my songs, complete lyrics, Gospel references, notes and sketches:

http://www.facebook.com/rootofjessesongs

 http://www.facebook.com/jesserootof

https://www.soundcloud.com/rootofjesse

 https://twitter.com/JesseRootof

 rootofjesse.tumblr.com

 http://www.myspace.com/jessesongproductions

 www.pinterest.com/JesseRootof

 https://goo.gl/K98kcr

[sysullivan]

Mothers & Sons [ SM; Soliloquy ]

The dreaded day approaches and there’s not much he can do to keep the inevitable reunion from the forefront of his thoughts. No amount of distraction, of organizing and reorganizing, no amount of wearing himself out far beyond his easily surpassable threshold of exhaustion helps to quell or stave off this unrest. Sleep does not come easily or at all and it’s plain to see; circles darkening under dull eyes and paper white skin. 

Sullivan keeps to himself and speaks no more than necessary. It is a ritual by this point, a strange sort of penance, a purgatory he subjects himself to every year. As often as he is reminded of the cowardice that defines him, no one is aware of and unable to look past that weakness more than Sullivan himself. As pitiable as he may at times seem, no one pities Sullivan more than he pities himself. He is still in love with the boy from his youth; a boy who had the whole ‘verse at his fingertips and lost it all. It’s selfish and immature in the faces of those who have lost so, so much more, but every year Sullivan folds up into himself and mourns the loss of his life.

It’s the Captain’s voice that cuts into his wallowing via the intercom, instantaneously shredding the black shroud he’s draped over each self-defamating thought. Suddenly he is alert; at attention. Immediately, he knows that something is wrong, dreadfully wrong. He’s seen and heard Jaewon in all levels of outrage and fury, but this...this is worse. Just the tone of his voice brings an immovable knot to Sullivan’s throat and the words themselves form a cavernous pit in his belly, one that, in comparison dwarfs the one previously festering there. His heart aches with renewed pain, a constricting empathy that Sullivan prefers not to feel but cannot escape, not when it comes to Jaewon and certainly not when it comes to the captain and her.

It only took hearing one story for Sullivan to decide three truths about Captain Vera Blackhound. First; Jaewon loved her. Maybe he wouldn’t choose that word himself; perhaps respect or reverence sounded more palatable, less intimate, but at the time, Sullivan had not yet seen nor heard his captain speak about someone with such affection; understated definitely, but unmistakable under the cool gaze of someone who’d been studying and scrutinizing his every word and gesture since coming into his employ.

Second, she was terrifying and thus, Sullivan was terrified of her. He’d naively believed Jaewon’s calamitous, cataclysmic existence to be unique. There couldn’t be multiple souls that possessed the same force as his. The thought in itself was frightening but at the same time, he was reminded of something he’d learned in his youth. The digital encyclopedia clip resurfaced vividly in his mind’s eye and haunted him again now as it had when he was younger. The clip showed a massive storm; black clouds ominously swirling and roiling, cloud convulsions illuminated by neon forked lightning until a writhing plume of tempest coiled to the ground and gained mass enough to threaten decimating everything unlucky enough to be in its path. As terrifying as the magnitude of that storm had been, Sullivan had watched on with renewed fear as other tornadoes twisted out of its breadth, breaking free of their mother to gain their own mass and speed and force, to leave their own unique wakes of destruction.

Third and most poignant of all, she would not want him on her ship. A bonafide son of the Alliance. A ‘purple belly’ in the flesh; a cowardly spineless weakling, if anyone had opposite beliefs, morals, and values, surely it would be him. This assumption was owed to her based on what the Alliance represented. It was not an association Sullivan could easily shake from himself and it was unlikely he could earn a reassessment from her based on his own dismissable merit. She had every right to distrust him and the reality of this opposition increased Sullivan’s estimation of that second truth.

It was quite early in his employment when he heard of her and quite soon after that they came face to face. He didn’t know what Vera thought of him or if she knew of his existence before waving in that evening for her weekly chat with Jaewon. She undoubtedly knew of Jaewon’s tendency to collect oddities that drifted into his path, objects that contained questionable value; value that perhaps only his hypnotizing golden eyes could estimate. It was the certainty that she would not see the worth that Jaewon seemed certain he possessed that caused him to fear her so greatly. It was the first time he remembered hiding behind Jaewon out of fear and the embarrassment of it still made his knees weak. He could recall her voice as she inquired as to just who that ‘ghost’ peeking out from behind him was and the resulting scuffle as Jaewon tried to pry previously strengthless hands off the back of his coat.

It seemed like ancient history now and he, of course, understood that his initial fear was misplaced. 

She reminded him of a nightmarish woman he’d known shortly before then. A similarly stern and powerful woman who was like Vera in the force she commanded, yet unlike her in the ways that truly mattered; in the ways that separated humans from monsters. He recognized the difference immediately, but he was still afraid. If anyone could convince Jaewon to be rid of him, it was her.

Thankfully, that hadn’t happened and he hoped there had come a turning point in the years since he’d joined the crew where she realized Sullivan posed no threat to Jaewon, his crew or the Serenity herself. What Vera felt for him, if anything, mattered not when compared to what Jaewon felt for her and what they’d meant to each other. If there was ever a time to assume that Sullivan would cry out of empathy or sympathy, it was now but somehow, there were no tears in his eyes when he flung open the door of his quarters and sprang to action.

He was on the cortex immediately, contacting clients and port authorities, seamlessly realigning their obligations to account for the Captain’s detour. He hunkered over his desk, tirelessly assessing the route they’d need to travel to make it there in time, accounting for the resources they’d be burning through and need to replenish and orchestrating precisely timed false leads to keep the more heavily alliance-patrolled thoroughfares clear of obstacles that could possibly detain them.

When they’d landed and the time came, he joined the others in the cargo bay as they waited with heavy hearts. Jaewon emerged from nowhere and Sullivan felt his breath hitch; heart splitting as he beheld him, a white squall. He followed, as he always follows, this time silent and solemn. He watched the ceremony through his lashes, eyes half-lowered, earnestly desiring to support Jaewon in his loss but guilty all the same since he wasn’t sure he was welcome.

If the sun beating down on them was any indication, Sullivan was sure he was unwanted. But stubbornly, he stayed put. And as one might imagine, the climate did not agree with his disposition. Sweat poured off of him, soaking him to the point he was worried the officiator might accuse him of crying for the deceased. The temperature made him nauseous and the sun’s rays ate through the pale linen garments he wore, bringing welts and blisters to the surface of previously pale skin.

By the time Jaewon and Vera started their journey into the sunset, Sullivan was near fainting. Somehow...he didn’t. For someone who was accustomed to operating on borrowed strength, he couldn’t honestly say whose he was syphering now. The idea that it might actually be his own bolstered his resolve. He followed the procession into town, feverish and dazed but unwilling to withdraw himself from the experience if there was a chance it meant dishonoring Vera or her sons.

He joined them in a tavern, many of them strangers yet somehow eerily familiar. He stayed on the outskirts of the room, sipping water, eavesdropping on stories that he honestly couldn’t believe weren’t embellished. He silently paid homage, raising his glass with the others, grateful for the chance to experience their memories; envious that he didn’t have the courage to live life with the same intensity.

The more he listened, the more he understood the legacy Vera had imparted to these men and women and though she was gone, there was no way she’d ever be forgotten. Jaewon had amassed his own ragtag, mismatched family but it was just one branch of a much larger, firmly rooted tree. The more he listened, the closer tears came to his eyes. An older pirate noticed the out of place youth and his glassy eyes. He joined Sullivan on the opposite side of the post he gingerly leaned against, a knowing gleam in his eyes when he warned him not to waste tears on the dead. “They’re...” Sullivan struggled, concentrating on not letting them spill and speaking loud enough to be heard. “They’re not for the dead.”

He’s not sure who carried him back to the Serenity, but he’s grateful he was not conscious during the journey. Apparently touched by his sentiment, the burly old pirate had raised a heavy limb to drape over Sullivan’s shoulder, a gesture of solidarity intended to bolster his spirits. However, feeling that log-like arm and hand clap onto his sun-blistered shoulders felt like nothing less than a lightning bolt, sending Sullivan promptly to the ground in a heap and instantly out of consciousness.

He woke in the medbay, slathered from waist to scalp in a jelly-like goo and wrapped in bandages like a mummy. Knowing his miniscule pain tolerance, Casta had medicated him accordingly but it didn’t do anything to mask the feeling of wanting to die from embarrassment. He spent an entire day in the infirmary with an IV rehydrating him, Cheesestick suspiciously observing the vaguely familiar creature, lingering nearby but out of reach.

They were already back in the Black when he came to and his recovery afforded him a lot of uninterrupted time to think and come to term with things in the well-intentioned but strange way he made deductions. He didn’t believe in Heaven or Hell, but he did believe in ghosts. Vera’s body had died, which meant she was now a spirit; free from pain and worry and the tethers that bound her to their plane of existence. If she could now exist wherever she wanted, surely she would stay close to her treasured children; watch over them, protect them.

Sullivan frequently feared. Big things, small things, unlikely things...he always feared for the Captain, who seemed genetically compelled to flirt with disaster and tempt fate. Yet, Sullivan felt so much less worried now? Perhaps it was completely illogical. It isn’t something he can prove and perhaps Jaewon would allow his loss to swallow him up before he again saw the light, but it didn’t change the newfound peace of mind that washed over his blistered skin and soothed him from the inside out.

If there was anyone who could keep Death from robbing Serenity’s crew of their captain, certainly it was her.

“LOOK AT ME, I’M MUTILATED!!” Sullivan croaked, leaning over the sink in the medbay to look at his newly spotted visage. He furiously rubbed his fist against the mirror, trying to convince himself that it was the reflective surface that was marred; not him. His efforts were to no avail. His eyes scanned his reflection to his outstretched arm and up to his shoulder. He checked the other side to be sure and then looked back to his freckled nose. 

He frowned, imagining he’d be teased for his insurmountable lack of constitution. The Vallurian sun and desert had given birth to Jaewon. He was made of them and sure enough, Sullivan hadn’t lasted a single day in their presence. He’d had a multitude of run-ins with the Captain that left him scorched and flushed and certain if the man had gotten any closer he would’ve combusted but the habitat itself had literally burnt him; leaving a permanent spattering of sun-kissed speckles on ivory cheeks and shoulders.

Secondary to the shock of his appearance was the realization that he had lived through his birthday without sparing a further thought to his own self-pity. It was something small when compared to everything else going on around him, yet, something he wouldn’t have believed he was capable of. He felt different somehow. Not in a way that was obvious. Maybe only because he looked a bit different now. 

Sullivan wants to believe there’s something more and it’s with the hope that there is, that he combs his hair into place and dresses himself up before sitting down in front of his communicator. He punches numbers and letters into the device that he was sure he’d forgotten after five years without use. The face that greets him is different than he remembers; faintly lined, brows heavier, eyes tired and worried until she recognizes the man staring back at her; until she realizes her eyes are not playing tricks on her. “Sully!! Sullivan!”

Floodgates open and a deluge of tears seem to gush from his eyes all at once. “Mom...” he chokes out. “I’m sorry I haven’t called you,” he sobs, shoulders shaking. He wanted to sit in front of her, poised and grown up and strong but of course, that was not the case. It was outrageously presumptuous even for Sullivan, to believe he could change to such an extent after what boiled down to a funeral and a sunburn. Still, somehow he’d managed to face this; a huge fear that could’ve turned into a huge regret. A fear he would not have dared face if it hadn’t been for what his friends had lost.

“It’s all right, darling...don’t cry,” she soothed, reaching up to wipe tears as they slipped down her cheeks. Despite crying herself, she smiled, she smiled so brightly that it just made Sullivan's heart want to burst. He’d spent such a long time letting fear control him, letting doubt and worry restrict his actions. He didn’t want to live like this anymore; didn’t want to waste any more time. “You look well, dearheart. Are you happy? You look stronger,” she gently praised, eyebrows rising when her sensitive boy perked up.

Did he really look stronger? Could she tell?! Sullivan sniffled and straightened up, wiping his tears away but the freckles still would not budge. “Yes, I’m much happier, Mother and...I’m stronger too...probably,” he added although he seemed less certain of the second part. 

“Tell me,” she encouraged. “Tell me where you’ve been...the adventures you’ve had.” 

Sullivan loved to tell stories, but whenever he told one it was about someone else. Someone famous who’d lived and died; someone who had accomplished something, someone who stood for something. He’d never been able to tell a story that he shared a part in and although they were small parts, it was still something he belonged to. Something precious and sacred that shaped him into the person he was now, a person, he was coming to realize, that might not be as worthless as he believed. 

Sullivan swallowed down the lump that had been stuck in his throat for the past few days and told her; told her everything he’d been holding onto since the last time he’d seen her.

[maggot-pie]

some time

I remember when I was aching;

was it because it was getting cold?

Or because of the loss and grief I felt?

I couldn’t tell

but it became hard to feel completely myself.

I’d have many dreams of him and I;

we were disconnected in every one.

For months, every night I’d go to bed,

knowing I’d see him in some form,

& I’d wake up unrested, often in tears.

Though reminders of him weren’t only in my sleep;

he haunted my waking hours too

because I could not forget

nor could I forgive.

Pain still burned my chest

& made me gag,

my stomach churned-

fuck it was bad.

How I felt was not something new

but the quantity of the unforgiving waves

was almost unbearable.

Death reared its head in my life,

of someone very important to me.

She helped raise me,

despite her pain.

While I watched what she went through,

she was there for me

while my father was absent

& the times my mother was taken away from me.

With change being inevitable,

I had to swallow my grit

& say goodbye for the last time.

Those months went by

& I made myself productive

with a tool I had learned very well;

high functioning anxiety.

To my surprise,

there was someone new

that I met by accident

on an October night.

I knew I couldn’t be present,

I was still hung up...

I was afraid

that I would hurt them.

I wasn’t ready

& even with my honesty,

they didn’t respect me either.

Without warning,

they read me poetry of their lost love

as if I was someone to share it to.

When I set a boundary,

they did what they wanted to anyway.

They checked out other women

while I was with them,

called me old when I told them I couldn’t do this,

then told me they loved me within 10 days of meeting me

in a sad effort to make me stay.

It triggered a memory of someone in my past

that did that same thing in a much shorter time

among other things that I will not mention.

The audacity of that disrespect,

their inability to even realize their wrongs

upon other things that I will not mention;

I couldn’t tell them that I just wasn’t interested,

that I was actually quite disgusted.

I told them we could be friends

but they denied that completely.

I couldn’t handle

such a selfish person,

so I left

& hurt them anyway.

-

The time I knew him

was about a year,

a whirlwind romance

that swept me up & kept my heart full

til it didn’t.

It was more than a year ago,

& the memories don’t hurt so much anymore.

I think I am ok now.

We became friends

who at the same time,

became lovers

though he refused to call us together.

I really did love him.

The way we laughed when we shared our stories,

the way we cried when we shared our pain,

the things he did to show he cared,

the things I knew that meant a lot.

I thought we were the same

& maybe that was why it was so easy for me

to love who he was;

his mind,

his heart,

his soul.

I knew kindness in him,

while others saw him selfish.

I knew youth & innocence,

while others saw him childish.

I knew goodness in him,

while others thought he lacked.

But after awhile, he did not want me

the way I wanted him.

He did not love me

& that was a hard one to swallow.

I take responsibility

for being insecure,

for taking his unkind words to heart,

for having him see me go through a fucked up time,

for having him deal with my erratic emotions

because of something I could not control,

because something had broken me,

because I was thrown into something so unexpected

that made me forget my strength,

forget my hardships,

amplified my insecurities,

& put my anxiety on overdrive.

It took me so far away from myself

when I know what I’ve been through,

where I’ve been,

& who I am.

To him, I am so sorry for those things,

but only

those things.

In the end, with all the things that happened,

in my right mind, I have a good memory-

in a sad mind, it’s even better.

It makes things hard to forget,

it makes pain hard to forgive.

We had a strong connection at the start

which became broken in an ugly way;

an awful tug of war

that neither of us won.

Maybe we met at the wrong time

or we were just wrong altogether.

He hid his feelings from everyone,

so it shouldn't have been

such a surprise

when he started hiding them from me.

The push and pull,

the constant changing of his mind,

he couldn't make a decision

& it made me very sick.

That decision between his false freedom

& my true liberation;

to me, it was an easy choice

but he made it seem very hard.

In the end, with all the things he said-

all the insensitive things,

all the gross & selfish things,

all the petty & thoughtless things,

he showed me where his mind was

& where his heart actually lied.

In the end,

he did not treat me like an equal.

He chose to treat me as if I was nothing,

he chose to treat me as disposable.

I was a vessel for his secrets,

a guarded place for his mind

but after awhile,

he did not treat my feelings as if they mattered

& because he did not treat me as a friend,

as an object

or a lover,

I did not know who I truly was to him.

He kept accusing me of infidelity,

of dishonesty

when I’ve grown up watching

how it destroyed people I love.

(When he shared that part of his past,

I asked if he thought if he was undeserving

& his answer revealed a true part of him

that the rest of him denied.

When he said he wasn’t a typical sign,

that he wasn’t manipulative

that he wasn’t vengeful,

when the things he said and did,

not just to me but to someone he called his friend,

to someone in his past,

not that he wasn’t without hurt

or that he was without reason,

they were exactly that.)

When he refused to even call us together,

when he kept having second

& third

& fourth

& more thoughts,

it made me assume the same.

I will admit

there was someone from my distant past

who contacted me asking how I was.

I replied to them

& even so without desire,

it didn’t feel right

but even so, I still did

because of all the disgusting things he said.

His wit could not control his mouth

& his moves were ruled by self-centered means.

His heart had made him a fool

so his mind told him that I was an enemy.

When his mind told him not to trust me,

he pushed me further away.

When his soul no longer recognised mine,

I stopped recognising his too.

When his actions contradicted his words,

his words contradicted his actions.

When his actions cut deeper,

when they reopened old wounds,

I started to expect

the thoughtlessness,

the laziness,

the lack of decency.

He forced me to see the sides

that everyone else saw,

& the connection we shared

was lost.

He said to never leave anyone behind,

but he did not lead by example.

Leaving you in the past

is the same

as letting me down

& making me feel small

& letting your demons rage so far inside you

& changing your mind as if my feelings were invalid,

& allowing insensitive, lustful, inconsiderate jealousy in my life,

It’s the same

as when I needed you most, I chose the comfort of that someone else

because of a mistake that you chose to do

when you accused me of the very same thing,

when you fucking knew that it was wrong

& then you chose to treat me as if I was the one to blame.

I don’t know if you ever realized

how much you made it clear

that I didn’t matter to you

when you were the first to say

you’d be there for me.

You can tell me

that you didn’t mean to be that way,

that you didn’t mean to make me feel like that,

that you apologize,

but without changed behaviour,

your sorries will always mean nothing

& you deserve no place in my life.

Things were done,

things were said,

things that can’t be taken back,

things that I’m sure we can't forget

& can't erase.

I tried to change

to tend his wants,

to fit his needs,

& all it did

was take a part of me away instead.

I tried not to judge

or hold hard feelings

but it proved to be very hard

& eventually,

every time I looked at him,

those ugly parts were all that I saw.

He forgot to respect my heart,

he forgot to respect my mind,

& for awhile,

I let him keep a firm hand on my soul.

Even though I tried reassuring,

though I told him I’d be there,

though I thought we were twins,

because of his past trauma,

because he kept choosing a past person,

because he chose a life of fake people;

people he had problems with,

people he had evil eyes from,

people he couldn’t seem to let go

because for some reason,

longevity over genuinity

mattered and meant more.

He did not trust me to hold his heart,

to take good care,

to keep it safe,

so he helped tear my own to pieces.

He was made of flames

& coarse salt;

I could not breathe.

Left an awful taste in my mouth

that I could not rid,

& no water cured

for he was water too.

But I’ve learned how to swim,

for he did not break me,

for I remembered my strengths,

for I am water too;

a cold drink on a hot day.

I am air & a hurricane,

I am earth, I make the ground shake,

I am shards of everlasting glass,

I AM flames & coarse salt;

I have burned that bridge

with much remorse,

with many thanks,

with definite loss but more I’ve gained,

with only love left inside of me

& I have never felt so free

[shujins-voice]

▶🔘──────── 01:20:13

🎵🎶Opening musical jingle🎶🎵

🔊 [Risa]: Welcome listeners to Risa's Corner~! Today is April 24th 20XX, here for your weekly Sunday cast.

🔊 [Risa]: Let's talk the news, my dear listeners.

🔊 [Risa]: Here's our first story: It's been all over the news since the story broke this morning, but that cat killer case is really strange.

🔊 [Risa]: First, there's what the guy did--Ayaka Kimura, age [ ], taking stray cats and torturing them. He was found dead in his apartment after it was seemingly broken into with 20 disfigured and deceased cats around his body. He has a broken nose but the autopsy report couldn't figure out the cause of his death. "Cat Killer" was spray painted onto his door.

🔊 [Risa]: Not to run straight to speculation, but is it just me, or does this case resemble the Domino Cases? For new listeners, the Domino Cases are the recent slew of cases solved by Katsura Noriko--the name was created on this cast during one of our live shows, just for us to personally categorizes as we speculate and fact hunt ourselves.

🔊 [Risa]: The Domino Cases have only a few things in common among cases--they all have a sudden burst of psychotic breaks that result in the perpetrator to rampage but either die of an unknown cause or dispose of themselves. The autopsy reports always show no conclusive cause of death. The psychotic and nonsensical break in a person's psyche leads to death--kinda like dominoes, where one thing leads to the next.

🔊 [Risa]: Here at Risa's Corner, we've had a lot of speculation from poison to simple coincidence, but I was doing some research the other day about Tokyo cases 5 years plus ago, cuz you know, there can never be too much information about murder and crime, and stumbled upon the Mental Shutdown cases.

🔊 [Risa]: There were so many occurrences 5 years ago, and many news outlets covered it at the time, but what was called a "mental shutdown" suddenly stopped, so everyone assumed the culprit either died or was captured quietly by police. I'm not saying that the Mental Shutdown cases and the Domino Cases have the same perpetrator, nor that they are even *remotely* the same--the Mental Shutdown cases have different symptoms than the Domino Cases--but they do have something in common.

🔊 [Risa]: They happen to seemingly random people, at random times, for random reasons--and the person affected by them die for some undetermined reason. There's also the Psychotic Breakdown cases that some theorize to be attached, or at least somehow related to, the Mental Shutdown cases--and those were handled by the late detective Akechi Goro, so obviously this situation is more complicated and you can't compare them this easily, but it's weird right?

🔊 [Risa]: We'll have to wait on more conclusive evidence before drawing any conclusions, but even look at the recent case in Shjinjuku of the 24 year old man wielding a bat and attacking random people. After this spree of violence, where he critical injured two people, he suddenly died before police even got on the scene. His autopsy results showed nothing conclusive about what killed him.

🔊 [Risa]: Then there's the case with two college students ramming their car into a jewelry store and making off with money and rings, only to drop dead after running away from the police. Many of the Domino Cases are nonsensical, and the police are often playing catch up when they discovery the bodies after everything goes down.

🔊 [Risa]: Katsura-san has been a vital component to solving this recent outbreak of cases, and has gained a lot of attention for her contributions. You've probably seen her all over TV and in the paper.

🔊 [Risa]: Of course, there has been some criticism of Katsura-san, dismissing her as a trend or just another attention grabber. The label of "Detective Prince" has often been associated with her name as of late, but many detractors call her "Detective Prissy", demeaning her detective work and claiming she's trying to usurp the role other detective princes have filled despite having no talent and originating from a no name place.

🔊 [Risa]: I think this behavior from others is stupid and inane for several reasons: Katsura-san first garnered notoriety due to the Daigoku Corp case she solved when she was 14, but if you look at her personal track record of solved cases, you'll find she's worked harder than many detective currently employed by the police.

🔊 [Risa]: And so what if she does public interviews and TV appearance? Did anyone criticize and lambaste Akechi Goro for trying to appeal to the public? He had valid and strong push back against him, but it was for his opinion, and not in the way people currently treat Katsura-san

🔊 [Risa]: Now I'm not saying that someone who brags and preens their role as a fake detective is the same as the real deal, nor that Akechi-san or Katsura-san are levels above each other, or lesser than each other. It's TRUE that Katsura-san hasn't been as active as she was before she was discovered, but she hasn't stopped working.

🔊 [Risa]: Looping back to the TV appearance thing, hey interviewers? You know she's 17 right? You sure you want to creep on her like that and push her with invasive questions?

🔊 [Risa]: I have a recent article on my site you can read comparing and contrasting the types of questions asked to Akechi Goro in his prime, a male detective, and Katsura Noriko, a female detective. It's no secret or mystery why there's such a stark difference, but if you want to see just how rampant the disrespect towards females in this industry is, that post can give you a taste.

🔊 [Risa]: It's not just Katsura-san either--look at the recent rape accusations made by a local female journalist. The angle many outlets and media organisations have taken and framed this story is not only disgusting but demeaning. It's the same song and dance every time with victims of sexual assault--people victim shame and assume the journalist is accusing out of jealously or trying to tear someone of power down. That's literally not how it works!

🔊 [Risa]: There are people who falsely accuse people of assault, yes, but those are in the minority. Especially in Japan. In 2014 legislators revised a century-old rape law to include serious penalties, but the lengths prosecutors need to go in order to prove it in court hasn't changed.

🔊 [Risa]: You know what determines if a rape is a crime? If the woman tries to fight back. Not if she says "no", not if she can't consent. If she doesn't fight back, it's hard to prove in court, and going through the process of filing charges can be intense and hurtful for the victims.

🔊 [Risa]: Like always, women are treated differently in this country, and throughout the world. Below this cast I have some helpful links for you if you want to read more on this topic, along with my citations, since I know I've gotten pretty heated on this topic, but I do recommend you read further on this. Even if you don't agree with me, there's always something to learn, so educate yourself.

🔊 [Risa]: Ah, but with that depressing rant out of the way, let's move onto the lighter segment of our program, Risa's Recommendations!

🔊 [Risa]: Happy pride week! Here's a reminder that the Tokyo Pride festival is on the 28th and 29th of this week. The parade will start in Shibuya and lead into Harajuku on the 28th. Want to participate? There's a sign up sheet online for groups, or you can go to Yoyogi Park, where the festival will be held, to sign up for free in person.

🔊 [Risa]: Speaking of the festival, the Tokyo Rainbow Pride festival will have more companies sponsoring it than ever before! The festivities will continue into Golden Week, so if you're a busy student don't worry!

🔊 [Risa]: On the 26th there is the pudding festival near DiverCity, boasting over 100 variants of pudding from all across Japan, so it's perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth! I remember going last year and got my hands on some kind of melon flavoured pudding--ahhh that was so yummy~!

🔊 [Risa]: On the 24th, today, is the Hanazono Shrine Antique Market, an small but regular antique fair that has 25-30 stalls. The fair runs from sunrise to sunset, but you should keep in mind most stalls close around 3pm. If you're any kind of collector, you should pop by and see what wares are available!

🔊 [Risa]: And of course, if you're still in the festival mood, all over Tokyo are cherry blossom festivals! If I were to recommend one though, I'd say go for the one in Roppongi. I've heard great things from my friend about it, but I still need to drag him to go with me sometime!

🔊 [Risa]: And that's all the time we have for today! Thank you for listening and like I always say; stay keen, seen, and clean! Take care~

[hellofastestnewsfan]

Welcome to another false equivalence election. Congratulations, you’ll hate it here.

President Donald Trump has an uncanny ability to project his own weaknesses onto his opponent: He’s rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off him and sticks to you. It’s a strategy that worked remarkably well against Hillary Clinton. He nicknamed her “Crooked Hillary” while his campaign was under federal investigation for ties to Russia. He reignited the debate over her husband’s sexual misconduct after multiple women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault, which he denies. He even accused Clinton of fomenting the ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. Reminder: it was Trump who did that.

This week, Donald Trump Jr. wrote an op-ed arguing that “Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton retread of 2020,” suggesting that the campaign plans to repeat the 2016 playbook. Trump is already trying to be the rubber in the 2020 campaign. The question is whether Biden will be the glue.

Some Republicans believe Trump’s strategy will work because, they say, Biden is already vulnerable to it. Where Democrats have spent years arguing that Trump is a sexual predator who is beholden to foreign powers and mentally unfit for the Presidency, the Trump campaign is gearing up to make the exact same arguments about Joe Biden. “While Biden is a consensus candidate, the same arguments that can be made about Trump can kind of be turned around,” says Republican strategist Tyler Brown. Which can work as “long as they have one sliver to say, ‘Here’s that case everyone’s heard of.’”

Biden’s defenders reject the idea that there are any slivers of truth to begin with, and point out that many of Trump’s attacks on Biden have been widely dismissed by fact checkers. They say Trump’s tactics reflect political weakness and the fact that Biden is gaining ground on Trump in some key battleground states. And the Biden campaign is on high alert for false equivalence in the media, which Democrats say helped Trump’s attacks against stick to Clinton in 2016.

That doesn’t worry Republicans much. “Whether it’s a false equivalence is by nature kind of moot,” says Brown. “The way people consume information, it kind of nullifies whether it’s false or not. It becomes less a values question and more of a volume question.”

The first rumblings started last year, when Trump alleged without providing evidence that Biden had benefited from his son Hunter’s role at a Ukrainian natural gas company even as Trump’s own children were appearing to promote Trump business interests everywhere from Aberdeen to Jakarta to India. Says Biden spokesman Mike Gwin, “He literally got himself impeached pursuing this false equivalency and trying to peddle this smear against Biden.”

That hasn’t deterred Trump’s Rubber vs Glue tactics. Democrats have long accused Trump of being too close to foreign adversaries (see: his cozy relationship with Putin, his friendship with Kim Jung Un, his warm embrace of dictators from Saudi Arabia to Turkey.) Now, Trump accuses Biden of cowing to China, tweeting that Biden is China’s “dream candidate” and releasing a misleading ad accusing him of protecting “China’s feelings.” Fact-checkers have debunked Trump’s claim that Biden was soft on China.

Democrats have expressed outrage for years about the dozens of sexual assault allegations against President Trump, which the President denies. Now, Trump’s campaign manager and digital whiz Brad Parscale tweeted a meme accusing Democrats of staying silent after former Senate staffer Tara Reade accused Biden of sexual assault, part of an ongoing effort alleging hypocrisy in the #MeToo movement. The Biden campaign vehemently denies Reade’s allegations, saying the encounter she described “absolutely did not happen.”

Democrats have criticized Trump’s misleading and bizarre press conferences during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Trump campaign is starting a drumbeat of ads designed to paint the gaffe-prone and rambling 77-year old Biden as senile and mentally unfit. “People are going to rue the day that they were questioning Donald Trump’s mental fitness, or ability to speak clearly, or you know, wherewithal for the job,” one White House official told TIME. “They’re going to rue that day.”

These are not exactly complicated campaign maneuvers. Trump is skilled at the age-old political trick of blowing enough smoke at his opponents so that voters assume there’s a fire there, even when he’s being consumed in his own conflagration. One Republican strategist called it “the ultimate whataboutism.” It also reflects the political rule that the best defense is a good offense. “It’s a tendency of most people in politics when they take fire to freeze and bunker,” says Brad Todd, Republican strategist and author of The Great Revolt. “President Trump understands that when you take fire you fire through it.”

For Democrats, it’s exhausting, and demoralizing. Which is the point. By framing the race as a “‘lesser of two evils,’ they’re trying to hurt turnout,” says Jen Palmieri, former communications director for Clinton. “It’s a very corrosive strategy, but it has an impact on people.”

In search of a defense, some Democrats are already looking at the role of the media. Many veterans of the 2016 Clinton campaign believe that media coverage of the Trump-Clinton race reinforced Trump’s attacks on Clinton, feeding his campaign’s narrative that the candidates were equivalently flawed and that the choice was between “two evils.” “‘Objectivity’ equated to: if I did a bad story about Trump, I had to do a bad story about Clinton,” says Palmieri. Strategists say a similar pattern is emerging in 2020. “Trump is up there spewing lies and Joe Biden has one slip of the tongue and the Trump campaign weaponizes it and then the media says, ‘Oh, Biden messed that up,’” says Ian Sams, a spokesman for Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2020.

Biden backers say he may be less vulnerable than Clinton was to the fog of false equivalence coming his way. Biden is a known quantity with consistently high favorability ratings since he left the Vice Presidency. Clinton had been tarred with right-wing vitriol for decades, which softened the ground for many of the attacks against her. “It cemented in voters minds a skepticism and an undercurrent and dislike towards her that Joe Biden just doesn’t have,” says Sams. “That allowed Trump’s attacks to catch on with voters in a way that I don’t think they will with Biden.”

Democrats also argue that much of the 2016 skepticism had to do with Clinton’s gender. Biden may benefit from a leniency that is rarely offered to women candidates. “The public is much more eager to forgive men’s mistakes than women’s mistakes,” Sams adds.

Lastly, every strategy works best when it’s deployed for the first time. The fact that this playbook has been run before could make it less effective. “There are antibodies in the system now, because people hear Trump tell lies all the time,” says Palmieri. “There are a lot of reasons to believe that Biden’s going to have an easier time navigating that than we did. And you don’t need to do that much better than we did to win.”

But the most important answer to whether Trump’s attacks will stick to Biden may have nothing to do with the President’s rubber vs. glue tactics. Voters will be making their 2020 decisions based on four years of a Trump presidency. While Trump had hoped that would mean a referendum on economic gains and perceived disruption of D.C., now it is more likely to focus on pandemic, mass unemployment, impeachment and near constant chaos coming from the White House. And it’s hard to see how Trump could accuse Biden of any of that.

—With reporting by Tessa Berenson/Washington

from TIME https://ift.tt/3eJlixz

[newstechreviews]

Welcome to another false equivalence election. Congratulations, you’ll hate it here.

President Donald Trump has an uncanny ability to project his own weaknesses onto his opponent: He’s rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off him and sticks to you. It’s a strategy that worked remarkably well against Hillary Clinton. He nicknamed her “Crooked Hillary” while his campaign was under federal investigation for ties to Russia. He reignited the debate over her husband’s sexual misconduct after multiple women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault, which he denies. He even accused Clinton of fomenting the ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. Reminder: it was Trump who did that.

This week, Donald Trump Jr. wrote an op-ed arguing that “Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton retread of 2020,” suggesting that the campaign plans to repeat the 2016 playbook. Trump is already trying to be the rubber in the 2020 campaign. The question is whether Biden will be the glue.

Some Republicans believe Trump’s strategy will work because, they say, Biden is already vulnerable to it. Where Democrats have spent years arguing that Trump is a sexual predator who is beholden to foreign powers and mentally unfit for the Presidency, the Trump campaign is gearing up to make the exact same arguments about Joe Biden. “While Biden is a consensus candidate, the same arguments that can be made about Trump can kind of be turned around,” says Republican strategist Tyler Brown. Which can work as “long as they have one sliver to say, ‘Here’s that case everyone’s heard of.’”

Biden’s defenders reject the idea that there are any slivers of truth to begin with, and point out that many of Trump’s attacks on Biden have been widely dismissed by fact checkers. They say Trump’s tactics reflect political weakness and the fact that Biden is gaining ground on Trump in some key battleground states. And the Biden campaign is on high alert for false equivalence in the media, which Democrats say helped Trump’s attacks against stick to Clinton in 2016.

That doesn’t worry Republicans much. “Whether it’s a false equivalence is by nature kind of moot,” says Brown. “The way people consume information, it kind of nullifies whether it’s false or not. It becomes less a values question and more of a volume question.”

The first rumblings started last year, when Trump alleged without providing evidence that Biden had benefited from his son Hunter’s role at a Ukrainian natural gas company even as Trump’s own children were appearing to promote Trump business interests everywhere from Aberdeen to Jakarta to India. Says Biden spokesman Mike Gwin, “He literally got himself impeached pursuing this false equivalency and trying to peddle this smear against Biden.”

That hasn’t deterred Trump’s Rubber vs Glue tactics. Democrats have long accused Trump of being too close to foreign adversaries (see: his cozy relationship with Putin, his friendship with Kim Jung Un, his warm embrace of dictators from Saudi Arabia to Turkey.) Now, Trump accuses Biden of cowing to China, tweeting that Biden is China’s “dream candidate” and releasing a misleading ad accusing him of protecting “China’s feelings.” Fact-checkers have debunked Trump’s claim that Biden was soft on China.

Democrats have expressed outrage for years about the dozens of sexual assault allegations against President Trump, which the President denies. Now, Trump’s campaign manager and digital whiz Brad Parscale tweeted a meme accusing Democrats of staying silent after former Senate staffer Tara Reade accused Biden of sexual assault, part of an ongoing effort alleging hypocrisy in the #MeToo movement. The Biden campaign vehemently denies Reade’s allegations, saying the encounter she described “absolutely did not happen.”

Democrats have criticized Trump’s misleading and bizarre press conferences during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Trump campaign is starting a drumbeat of ads designed to paint the gaffe-prone and rambling 77-year old Biden as senile and mentally unfit. “People are going to rue the day that they were questioning Donald Trump’s mental fitness, or ability to speak clearly, or you know, wherewithal for the job,” one White House official told TIME. “They’re going to rue that day.”

These are not exactly complicated campaign maneuvers. Trump is skilled at the age-old political trick of blowing enough smoke at his opponents so that voters assume there’s a fire there, even when he’s being consumed in his own conflagration. One Republican strategist called it “the ultimate whataboutism.” It also reflects the political rule that the best defense is a good offense. “It’s a tendency of most people in politics when they take fire to freeze and bunker,” says Brad Todd, Republican strategist and author of The Great Revolt. “President Trump understands that when you take fire you fire through it.”

For Democrats, it’s exhausting, and demoralizing. Which is the point. By framing the race as a “‘lesser of two evils,’ they’re trying to hurt turnout,” says Jen Palmieri, former communications director for Clinton. “It’s a very corrosive strategy, but it has an impact on people.”

In search of a defense, some Democrats are already looking at the role of the media. Many veterans of the 2016 Clinton campaign believe that media coverage of the Trump-Clinton race reinforced Trump’s attacks on Clinton, feeding his campaign’s narrative that the candidates were equivalently flawed and that the choice was between “two evils.” “‘Objectivity’ equated to: if I did a bad story about Trump, I had to do a bad story about Clinton,” says Palmieri. Strategists say a similar pattern is emerging in 2020. “Trump is up there spewing lies and Joe Biden has one slip of the tongue and the Trump campaign weaponizes it and then the media says, ‘Oh, Biden messed that up,’” says Ian Sams, a spokesman for Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2020.

Biden backers say he may be less vulnerable than Clinton was to the fog of false equivalence coming his way. Biden is a known quantity with consistently high favorability ratings since he left the Vice Presidency. Clinton had been tarred with right-wing vitriol for decades, which softened the ground for many of the attacks against her. “It cemented in voters minds a skepticism and an undercurrent and dislike towards her that Joe Biden just doesn’t have,” says Sams. “That allowed Trump’s attacks to catch on with voters in a way that I don’t think they will with Biden.”

Democrats also argue that much of the 2016 skepticism had to do with Clinton’s gender. Biden may benefit from a leniency that is rarely offered to women candidates. “The public is much more eager to forgive men’s mistakes than women’s mistakes,” Sams adds.

Lastly, every strategy works best when it’s deployed for the first time. The fact that this playbook has been run before could make it less effective. “There are antibodies in the system now, because people hear Trump tell lies all the time,” says Palmieri. “There are a lot of reasons to believe that Biden’s going to have an easier time navigating that than we did. And you don’t need to do that much better than we did to win.”

But the most important answer to whether Trump’s attacks will stick to Biden may have nothing to do with the President’s rubber vs. glue tactics. Voters will be making their 2020 decisions based on four years of a Trump presidency. While Trump had hoped that would mean a referendum on economic gains and perceived disruption of D.C., now it is more likely to focus on pandemic, mass unemployment, impeachment and near constant chaos coming from the White House. And it’s hard to see how Trump could accuse Biden of any of that.

—With reporting by Tessa Berenson/Washington

[phooll123]

New top story from Time: Why 2020 Could Be Another False Equivalence Election

Welcome to another false equivalence election. Congratulations, you’ll hate it here.

President Donald Trump has an uncanny ability to project his own weaknesses onto his opponent: He’s rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off him and sticks to you. It’s a strategy that worked remarkably well against Hillary Clinton. He nicknamed her “Crooked Hillary” while his campaign was under federal investigation for ties to Russia. He reignited the debate over her husband’s sexual misconduct after multiple women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault, which he denies. He even accused Clinton of fomenting the ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. Reminder: it was Trump who did that.

This week, Donald Trump Jr. wrote an op-ed arguing that “Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton retread of 2020,” suggesting that the campaign plans to repeat the 2016 playbook. Trump is already trying to be the rubber in the 2020 campaign. The question is whether Biden will be the glue.

Some Republicans believe Trump’s strategy will work because, they say, Biden is already vulnerable to it. Where Democrats have spent years arguing that Trump is a sexual predator who is beholden to foreign powers and mentally unfit for the Presidency, the Trump campaign is gearing up to make the exact same arguments about Joe Biden. “While Biden is a consensus candidate, the same arguments that can be made about Trump can kind of be turned around,” says Republican strategist Tyler Brown. Which can work as “long as they have one sliver to say, ‘Here’s that case everyone’s heard of.’”

Biden’s defenders reject the idea that there are any slivers of truth to begin with, and point out that many of Trump’s attacks on Biden have been widely dismissed by fact checkers. They say Trump’s tactics reflect political weakness and the fact that Biden is gaining ground on Trump in some key battleground states. And the Biden campaign is on high alert for false equivalence in the media, which Democrats say helped Trump’s attacks against stick to Clinton in 2016.

That doesn’t worry Republicans much. “Whether it’s a false equivalence is by nature kind of moot,” says Brown. “The way people consume information, it kind of nullifies whether it’s false or not. It becomes less a values question and more of a volume question.”

The first rumblings started last year, when Trump alleged without providing evidence that Biden had benefited from his son Hunter’s role at a Ukrainian natural gas company even as Trump’s own children were appearing to promote Trump business interests everywhere from Aberdeen to Jakarta to India. Says Biden spokesman Mike Gwin, “He literally got himself impeached pursuing this false equivalency and trying to peddle this smear against Biden.”

That hasn’t deterred Trump’s Rubber vs Glue tactics. Democrats have long accused Trump of being too close to foreign adversaries (see: his cozy relationship with Putin, his friendship with Kim Jung Un, his warm embrace of dictators from Saudi Arabia to Turkey.) Now, Trump accuses Biden of cowing to China, tweeting that Biden is China’s “dream candidate” and releasing a misleading ad accusing him of protecting “China’s feelings.” Fact-checkers have debunked Trump’s claim that Biden was soft on China.

Democrats have expressed outrage for years about the dozens of sexual assault allegations against President Trump, which the President denies. Now, Trump’s campaign manager and digital whiz Brad Parscale tweeted a meme accusing Democrats of staying silent after former Senate staffer Tara Reade accused Biden of sexual assault, part of an ongoing effort alleging hypocrisy in the #MeToo movement. The Biden campaign vehemently denies Reade’s allegations, saying the encounter she described “absolutely did not happen.”

Democrats have criticized Trump’s misleading and bizarre press conferences during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Trump campaign is starting a drumbeat of ads designed to paint the gaffe-prone and rambling 77-year old Biden as senile and mentally unfit. “People are going to rue the day that they were questioning Donald Trump’s mental fitness, or ability to speak clearly, or you know, wherewithal for the job,” one White House official told TIME. “They’re going to rue that day.”

These are not exactly complicated campaign maneuvers. Trump is skilled at the age-old political trick of blowing enough smoke at his opponents so that voters assume there’s a fire there, even when he’s being consumed in his own conflagration. One Republican strategist called it “the ultimate whataboutism.” It also reflects the political rule that the best defense is a good offense. “It’s a tendency of most people in politics when they take fire to freeze and bunker,” says Brad Todd, Republican strategist and author of The Great Revolt. “President Trump understands that when you take fire you fire through it.”

For Democrats, it’s exhausting, and demoralizing. Which is the point. By framing the race as a “‘lesser of two evils,’ they’re trying to hurt turnout,” says Jen Palmieri, former communications director for Clinton. “It’s a very corrosive strategy, but it has an impact on people.”

In search of a defense, some Democrats are already looking at the role of the media. Many veterans of the 2016 Clinton campaign believe that media coverage of the Trump-Clinton race reinforced Trump’s attacks on Clinton, feeding his campaign’s narrative that the candidates were equivalently flawed and that the choice was between “two evils.” “‘Objectivity’ equated to: if I did a bad story about Trump, I had to do a bad story about Clinton,” says Palmieri. Strategists say a similar pattern is emerging in 2020. “Trump is up there spewing lies and Joe Biden has one slip of the tongue and the Trump campaign weaponizes it and then the media says, ‘Oh, Biden messed that up,’” says Ian Sams, a spokesman for Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2020.

Biden backers say he may be less vulnerable than Clinton was to the fog of false equivalence coming his way. Biden is a known quantity with consistently high favorability ratings since he left the Vice Presidency. Clinton had been tarred with right-wing vitriol for decades, which softened the ground for many of the attacks against her. “It cemented in voters minds a skepticism and an undercurrent and dislike towards her that Joe Biden just doesn’t have,” says Sams. “That allowed Trump’s attacks to catch on with voters in a way that I don’t think they will with Biden.”

Democrats also argue that much of the 2016 skepticism had to do with Clinton’s gender. Biden may benefit from a leniency that is rarely offered to women candidates. “The public is much more eager to forgive men’s mistakes than women’s mistakes,” Sams adds.

Lastly, every strategy works best when it’s deployed for the first time. The fact that this playbook has been run before could make it less effective. “There are antibodies in the system now, because people hear Trump tell lies all the time,” says Palmieri. “There are a lot of reasons to believe that Biden’s going to have an easier time navigating that than we did. And you don’t need to do that much better than we did to win.”

But the most important answer to whether Trump’s attacks will stick to Biden may have nothing to do with the President’s rubber vs. glue tactics. Voters will be making their 2020 decisions based on four years of a Trump presidency. While Trump had hoped that would mean a referendum on economic gains and perceived disruption of D.C., now it is more likely to focus on pandemic, mass unemployment, impeachment and near constant chaos coming from the White House. And it’s hard to see how Trump could accuse Biden of any of that.

—With reporting by Tessa Berenson/Washington

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2KzWMRD

[itsfinancethings]

Welcome to another false equivalence election. Congratulations, you’ll hate it here.

President Donald Trump has an uncanny ability to project his own weaknesses onto his opponent: He’s rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off him and sticks to you. It’s a strategy that worked remarkably well against Hillary Clinton. He nicknamed her “Crooked Hillary” while his campaign was under federal investigation for ties to Russia. He reignited the debate over her husband’s sexual misconduct after multiple women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual assault, which he denies. He even accused Clinton of fomenting the ‘birther’ conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. Reminder: it was Trump who did that.

This week, Donald Trump Jr. wrote an op-ed arguing that “Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton retread of 2020,” suggesting that the campaign plans to repeat the 2016 playbook. Trump is already trying to be the rubber in the 2020 campaign. The question is whether Biden will be the glue.

Some Republicans believe Trump’s strategy will work because, they say, Biden is already vulnerable to it. Where Democrats have spent years arguing that Trump is a sexual predator who is beholden to foreign powers and mentally unfit for the Presidency, the Trump campaign is gearing up to make the exact same arguments about Joe Biden. “While Biden is a consensus candidate, the same arguments that can be made about Trump can kind of be turned around,” says Republican strategist Tyler Brown. Which can work as “long as they have one sliver to say, ‘Here’s that case everyone’s heard of.’”

Biden’s defenders reject the idea that there are any slivers of truth to begin with, and point out that many of Trump’s attacks on Biden have been widely dismissed by fact checkers. They say Trump’s tactics reflect political weakness and the fact that Biden is gaining ground on Trump in some key battleground states. And the Biden campaign is on high alert for false equivalence in the media, which Democrats say helped Trump’s attacks against stick to Clinton in 2016.

That doesn’t worry Republicans much. “Whether it’s a false equivalence is by nature kind of moot,” says Brown. “The way people consume information, it kind of nullifies whether it’s false or not. It becomes less a values question and more of a volume question.”

The first rumblings started last year, when Trump alleged without providing evidence that Biden had benefited from his son Hunter’s role at a Ukrainian natural gas company even as Trump’s own children were appearing to promote Trump business interests everywhere from Aberdeen to Jakarta to India. Says Biden spokesman Mike Gwin, “He literally got himself impeached pursuing this false equivalency and trying to peddle this smear against Biden.”

That hasn’t deterred Trump’s Rubber vs Glue tactics. Democrats have long accused Trump of being too close to foreign adversaries (see: his cozy relationship with Putin, his friendship with Kim Jung Un, his warm embrace of dictators from Saudi Arabia to Turkey.) Now, Trump accuses Biden of cowing to China, tweeting that Biden is China’s “dream candidate” and releasing a misleading ad accusing him of protecting “China’s feelings.” Fact-checkers have debunked Trump’s claim that Biden was soft on China.

Democrats have expressed outrage for years about the dozens of sexual assault allegations against President Trump, which the President denies. Now, Trump’s campaign manager and digital whiz Brad Parscale tweeted a meme accusing Democrats of staying silent after former Senate staffer Tara Reade accused Biden of sexual assault, part of an ongoing effort alleging hypocrisy in the #MeToo movement. The Biden campaign vehemently denies Reade’s allegations, saying the encounter she described “absolutely did not happen.”

Democrats have criticized Trump’s misleading and bizarre press conferences during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Trump campaign is starting a drumbeat of ads designed to paint the gaffe-prone and rambling 77-year old Biden as senile and mentally unfit. “People are going to rue the day that they were questioning Donald Trump’s mental fitness, or ability to speak clearly, or you know, wherewithal for the job,” one White House official told TIME. “They’re going to rue that day.”

These are not exactly complicated campaign maneuvers. Trump is skilled at the age-old political trick of blowing enough smoke at his opponents so that voters assume there’s a fire there, even when he’s being consumed in his own conflagration. One Republican strategist called it “the ultimate whataboutism.” It also reflects the political rule that the best defense is a good offense. “It’s a tendency of most people in politics when they take fire to freeze and bunker,” says Brad Todd, Republican strategist and author of The Great Revolt. “President Trump understands that when you take fire you fire through it.”

For Democrats, it’s exhausting, and demoralizing. Which is the point. By framing the race as a “‘lesser of two evils,’ they’re trying to hurt turnout,” says Jen Palmieri, former communications director for Clinton. “It’s a very corrosive strategy, but it has an impact on people.”

In search of a defense, some Democrats are already looking at the role of the media. Many veterans of the 2016 Clinton campaign believe that media coverage of the Trump-Clinton race reinforced Trump’s attacks on Clinton, feeding his campaign’s narrative that the candidates were equivalently flawed and that the choice was between “two evils.” “‘Objectivity’ equated to: if I did a bad story about Trump, I had to do a bad story about Clinton,” says Palmieri. Strategists say a similar pattern is emerging in 2020. “Trump is up there spewing lies and Joe Biden has one slip of the tongue and the Trump campaign weaponizes it and then the media says, ‘Oh, Biden messed that up,’” says Ian Sams, a spokesman for Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2020.

Biden backers say he may be less vulnerable than Clinton was to the fog of false equivalence coming his way. Biden is a known quantity with consistently high favorability ratings since he left the Vice Presidency. Clinton had been tarred with right-wing vitriol for decades, which softened the ground for many of the attacks against her. “It cemented in voters minds a skepticism and an undercurrent and dislike towards her that Joe Biden just doesn’t have,” says Sams. “That allowed Trump’s attacks to catch on with voters in a way that I don’t think they will with Biden.”

Democrats also argue that much of the 2016 skepticism had to do with Clinton’s gender. Biden may benefit from a leniency that is rarely offered to women candidates. “The public is much more eager to forgive men’s mistakes than women’s mistakes,” Sams adds.

Lastly, every strategy works best when it’s deployed for the first time. The fact that this playbook has been run before could make it less effective. “There are antibodies in the system now, because people hear Trump tell lies all the time,” says Palmieri. “There are a lot of reasons to believe that Biden’s going to have an easier time navigating that than we did. And you don’t need to do that much better than we did to win.”

But the most important answer to whether Trump’s attacks will stick to Biden may have nothing to do with the President’s rubber vs. glue tactics. Voters will be making their 2020 decisions based on four years of a Trump presidency. While Trump had hoped that would mean a referendum on economic gains and perceived disruption of D.C., now it is more likely to focus on pandemic, mass unemployment, impeachment and near constant chaos coming from the White House. And it’s hard to see how Trump could accuse Biden of any of that.

—With reporting by Tessa Berenson/Washington