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mariacallous · 21 days ago

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Tomorrow is Election Day, the last day of voting in this tumultuous 2024 campaign. What a long, strange trip it's been. Just a year ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was challenging former president Trump for the GOP nomination by saying the word "woke" at least a hundred times a day while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley competed for what's left of the "normie" Republican vote. A clown car full of grifters and kooks, meanwhile, used the primaries as an opportunity to suck up to Trump, whom everyone knew would inevitably be the nominee. After all, he'd been running non-stop since 2015.

Meanwhile on the Democratic side, incumbent president Joe Biden was an unchallenged shoo-in for the Democratic nomination. Most people felt he'd probably be able to replicate his 2020 win despite being unpopular due to a lingering hangover from the pandemic. After all, Trump had incited an insurrection and was facing lawsuits and felony trials in federal court and two different states stemming from a variety of alleged crimes. Surely, he couldn't possibly win after all that?

In the year since, Biden was revealed to be just too old to run for president again and was replaced by his younger vice president, Kamala Harris, who sparked a massive rise in enthusiasm among Democrats. Trump, meanwhile, has shown that his millions-strong cult of personality is fully intact and they are ecstatic about putting him back in the White House in spite of his many flaws (maybe even because of them.) We could find out the winner as soon as tomorrow night — or maybe not.

If it's as close as many of the pollsters say it is it could take a while before we know the final results. And it goes without saying that unless they call the race for him right away, Trump is planning to cry "fraud" and will do everything in his power to create the illusion that he won regardless of the count. So we can expect chaos. He's made that very clear.

The polls have more or less shown a tied race nationally and in the swing states for the past couple of months. Whether that's correct or not, we don't know. Because they missed some Trump voters in 2016 and 2020, everyone is on edge that the same thing has happened again despite the pollsters' going out of their way to correct the problem this time. With the polls this close that error could translate to a repeat of 2016 which has a whole lot of people losing sleep these last few weeks.

But something unexpected happened this past weekend that may have called those assumptions into question. The Des Moines Register poll, considered one of the best in all of politics due to pollster J. Ann Selzer's excellent track record, dropped its final poll of the cycle and it landed like a nuclear bomb. Iowa is a solid red state and the previous poll had Trump winning the state handily as expected. Now the numbers showed Harris beating Trump 47 - 44. Boom.

Iowa is one of the whitest states in the union, so race isn't a factor which makes it an interesting proxy for white voters in other swing states with similar populations (like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, for instance.) While Trump has maintained his base of men, evangelical voters, rural residents and non-college-educated voters, the poll found that women, specifically older and politically independent women, have swung in large numbers to Harris. And just as surprising, Harris is winning voters over 65, which has been a GOP base vote for decades. What in the world does this mean?

First, it's pretty clear that reproductive rights are driving this race for a whole lot of people. Iowa, in particular, is now living under a draconian six-week abortion ban that was upheld by its far-right Supreme Court last summer. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his notorious opinion that "women are not without electoral or political power." It appears we may be about to find out the truth of that.

People expected that younger women would vote in large numbers on this issue but there seems to be some surprise that older women would be motivated to do so. Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno was caught on video bemoaning the "single issue" women voters and wondering why women over 50 would care about it.

I guess it's hard for right-wingers to understand why anyone would care about someone other than themselves. But it's more than that. The reversal of Roe v. Wade was deeply offensive to many women of all ages, something we could only see as a direct attack on our basic human rights by a group of men (and one very conservative woman) determined to turn back the clock to a time when women were literally second class citizens. Women can see where this is leading and it isn't toward freedom and equality — for any of us.

The Republican Party and its leader, a predator found legally liable for sexual assault, is running for election on a platform of flagrant misogyny. Donald Trump literally said, 'I was able to kill Roe v. Wade' until he belatedly realized it wasn't popular, at which point he came up with his fatuous rationale that "everyone wanted it to go back to the states." That is utterly absurd and most people know it. He's lately taken to saying that he'll be women's "protector" which, coming from him, is more of a threat. In fact, in recent days he's said that he'll do it "whether the women like it or not."

Then you have his choice for running mate, JD Vance, who thinks that women should stay in abusive marriages, thinks abortion should be banned nationally even in cases of rape and incest and wants to prevent women from traveling out of state to obtain them (he now denies knowing about such efforts). And he famously believes that "childless cat ladies" are the cause of everything wrong in our culture and agrees that "the whole purpose of the post-menopausal female is child care."

And people are surprised that women of all ages are refusing to vote for these people?

This Iowa poll may be an outlier and all the chatter about this remarkable result will end up being nothing more than election year lore. Most analysts still seem to think that it's nearly impossible to believe that Harris will actually win Iowa. But this poll is one of the very few that caught the hidden angry non-college-educated Trump vote in 2016 and 2020. There is every reason to believe that it may be catching the hidden pissed-off college-educated and independent women Harris vote in 2024. Nothing would be more satisfying than for this voting block to be the one to spell the end of Donald Trump's political career.

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bisluthq · 19 days ago

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The dems dropped the ball by letting Biden decline (and it has been obvious for the past couple years) with no game plan. And then they shuffled and put Kamala in an impossible situation with like 90 days. And whoever their strategist was, was a total idiot to make the campaign focused on shit that Kamala can’t even control — the Supreme Court reviewed Roe v Wade because it was technically, from a constitutional perspective, not correct to not let people in the states vote on it. This means that liberal states such as California are protected from conservative states (such as Florida) when it comes to abortion laws. Kamala and the democrats really tried to convince people that this could be changed back by voting her in office and anyone who has studied government should fucking know she was talking out her ass and scrambling to find something to use to propel her. And lost in the sauce were the working class! So much so that minorities and demographics of FIRST TIME VOTERS cast a ballot for Trump because the economy is so damn bad. Kamala dug her grave when she said a couple weeks ago when asked what her economic plan was that she didn’t plan to deviate from Biden. WTF, why would you say that?! That is the highest priority of so many undecided Americans. Lowkey convinced this woman did not want to win and was just stuck (also explains why she seemed on verge of a panic attack anytime someone asked her a damn question of substance about foreign policy or the economy). All she could do was parrot social issue crap which look. Citizens ultimately decide how that sway looks, presidents can’t really control how people view social issues, presidents are best for just sticking to basic government and the economy. I know diehard liberals like to frame themselves as being morally superior because they are so caring about rights, but guess what, there are families out here that are barely scraping by. When you have people that can’t afford to live anymore that cuts out their capacity to care about social issues because they are BURNT out. As Bernie Sanders aptly put it today, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,”

this is exactly what I think like word for word. 100%. I also wanna add a few things though: 1) the Dems and Kamala personally seemed out of touch af for the last while tbh and one could see that with the parade of celeb endorsements lmao like that’s very nice when celebs come out and encourage voter registration and getting people to vote sensibly but Kamala’s last few rallies felt very “let them eat cake” like people legit can’t feed their families and you don’t really have a plan on how to fix that and you’ve got Beyonce up there with you? Ok then. I mean like at that particular rally, and this legit happened, a bunch of people left after Bey was done talking and they realized they’re not getting a free concert right because like that’s why they’d shown up lmao but showing up for a free Bey concert (that didn’t even pan out, sorry to those people) /=/ voting for Kamala. Trump’s celeb endorsement (singular p much lol) was at least promising people a chance to win money which is wrong and unethical on like just about every level but way more effective as a strategy when, again, people can’t feed their families. 2) The mainstream media got just about as bad as FOX with regards lies there at the end, it’s just that the lies were geared at Trump not for Trump. The most egregious was when they were saying he wanted to put Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad lol when what he’d said is fuck the Cheneys and other war mongering politicians who sit in DC and send Americans to war. That’s legit what he said. Not sure at what point we became pro the Cheneys or war tbh. 3) People’s reactions and vibes online are never a barometer for anything ever and Kamala and her team should’ve known that. No amount of brat aesthetics are gonna be anything except a cute gimmick. 4) Biden Harris administration has screwed foreign policy badly and I think plenty of people didn’t vote or actually voted Trump based on Middle East too. Like they screwed economy and they screwed foreign policy so idk what there was left to vote for except “not Trump” (which fwiw I would’ve voted for if I was in the US but also probably not if I couldn’t afford food) and cute gimmicks and the abortion thing BUT AS YOU POINT OUT there is fuck all that can be done about Roe now that Trump undid it and before these Supreme Court justices retire/die which won’t be for a very long time. It’s now a states issue. If you live in a conservative state that seriously sucks like idk what to say there but Kamala wouldn’t have fixed it because she couldn’t have.

all of which to say it still sucks lmao that this was the situation right 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

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tedcruzhasastupidface · 1 month ago

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Donald Trump is Killing Women

Men—especially conservative Christian men in the US—will never fully understand the unimaginable trauma women and girls in their lives may have endure when their bodies are in crisis like miscarriage. They can’t grasp the complexity of fertility and reproduction. Sure, they might catch a glimpse of the horror if the woman they love doesn’t survive the ordeal. But unless it happens to them, most of them have no clue. Their wives, daughters, and sisters might be walking around with a story they’ll never tell these men. And some women aren’t walking around at all—they’re dead, thanks to laws these men applaud.

These laws, the ones Trump’s handpicked Supreme Court Justices helped kill Rowe vs Wade, are literally killing women. Think that’s an exaggeration? Ask Amber Thurman or Candi Miller—oh wait, you can’t. They died in hospitals from complications that should have been treated but couldn’t be because doctors’ hands were tied by these insane bans. In states like theirs, women are forced to wait until they’re inches from death before doctors can intervene. And doctors, terrified of being thrown in jail, do nothing while women die. In Trump’s fake Fox News town hall for women, laughed about this.

Weather is comes to terminating a pregnancy with complications early or late, we’re not talking about reckless decisions. Late-term abortions are never spur-of-the-moment. They happen when something goes terribly, tragically wrong, when a pregnancy expected to result in a healthy child turns into a nightmare. Pete Buttigieg put it perfectly back in 2019: “Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation. If it’s that late in your pregnancy, it’s to the point that you’ve been expecting to carry it to term. Families then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime. That decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.”

But here we are, and Trump and his follow assholes acting like they know better than the families facing these impossible choices. Trump keeps spouting nonsense like "everyone wanted this!" No, Hitler pig craps-his-pants. No, they didn’t. Most people don’t want some backwater state legislature dictating what happens to their bodies. And Trump’s claim that “legal scholars” wanted states to make these calls? Total bullshit.

At the DNC, we heard from Amanda Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua, and Hadley Duvall, three women who came close to dying because of these cruel laws. How many more will there be? How many more lives will Trump sacrifice for political points?

Every time abortion has been on the ballot in recent years, women have shown up to defend their rights. Republican’s are losing consistently because of their position. And it’s why Trump and the rest will lose. But it won’t happen unless you vote Harris/Walz and every Democrat down the ballot. Tell every woman (and the men that care about them to vote democrat. It’s the only way to stop Trump for good and we can get back to normal.

If you’re a father of a daughter, a husband of a wife, an uncle of a niece, and you vote for Trump, and someday your female family members finds herself in need of reproductive care and can’t get it because of the laws your state and she dies, you’re complicit. And you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. Think about that. Don’t be like the Trump voters that he deported.

Let’s stop this madness. Vote, speak out, and make sure we never let someone like Trump endanger women’s lives again.

#republican assholes #fuck donald trump #vote harris

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culturedgals · 3 days ago

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'Where is George Gibney?' An Irish Podcast Review - Eila

Podcasts have become a potent narrative tool that allows for the examination of difficult and frequently terrifying subjects. Where is George Gibney is a modern Irish podcast that explores tragedy with both a keen eye for detail and a profound emotional connection. The tale of George Gibney, a former Irish Olympic swimming coach who was accused of sexual assault, is told in this podcast, which was created by BBC Sounds and Second Captains. The series is a moving meditation on institutional shortcomings, resiliency, and the long-lasting effects of abuse rather than just retelling horrible occurrences.

Where is George Gibney? is co-produced by Ciarán Cassidy and hosted by Mark Horgan. When it debuted in August 2020, it immediately won praise for its careful research and tactful treatment of the topic. The podcast, which spans 10 episodes, chronicles Gibney's ascent to fame, the accusations made against him, his avoidance of punishment, and the long-term effects on his victims and Irish society as a whole. As the title makes clear, the main focus of the podcast is George Gibney's location. But it develops into a more comprehensive investigation into how someone who is charged with such horrible acts may avoid punishment. A terrible tapestry of individual suffering and institutional ineptitude is shown by Horgan via interviews with survivors, journalists, and legal experts.

The tragedy of Gibney's victims is at the centre of the podcast. Throughout his career, he mistreated young swimmers by abusing his position of authority and trust. Survivors talk about the severe and long-lasting effects of this abuse, including mental health issues, broken relationships, and emotional scars. The podcast challenges the stigma and silence that can accompany these instances by providing these people with a voice and ensuring their stories are heard and valued.

The tragedy is exacerbated by the structural and legal shortcomings that let Gibney to evade punishment. Gibney was charged with indecent assault and criminal carnal knowledge involving many kids in the 1990s. However, citing legal technicalities, the Supreme Court awarded him protection from prosecution in a 1994 ruling. In addition to devastating survivors, this ruling brought to light Ireland's court system's shortcomings in handling accusations of sexual abuse at the time.

The episode explores the institutional and cultural factors that made Gibney's assault possible. It criticises the judicial system, the Irish swimming community, and larger cultural views on abuse, all of which fuelled a climate of impunity and quiet. For example, the Irish swimming governing organisations put their reputation before the athletes' well-being by failing to take action in response to early concerns about Gibney's behaviour. Gibney's legal protections also highlight the difficulties survivors encounter when trying to obtain justice.

These shortcomings are not unique to Ireland; they are a reflection of institutional culpability in abuse incidents around the world. Strong institutions, like as the Catholic Church and athletic associations like USA Gymnastics, have been shown over and again to protect offenders at the expense of victims. Where is George Gibney? places Gibney's case in this broader framework, which makes its examination of tragedy both universal and local.

The podcast's storytelling technique is one of its strong points. Horgan carefully handles the delicate subject, striking a balance between the need for journalistic investigation and consideration for survivors. Survivors are given the opportunity to talk about their experiences on their own terms since interviews are done with sensitivity. The podcast has a profound impact because of this strategy, which promotes honesty and trust. Another important component is the narrative framework. Every episode builds on the one before it, combining historical background, firsthand recollections, and research results to create a seamless and gripping narrative. The podcast immerses listeners in the sad world it aims to shed light on by utilising historical audio, professional commentary, and on-location reporting to increase the sense of immediacy and participation.

The podcast has had a big impact, rekindling interest in Gibney's case and prompting wider discussions about accountability and abuse in Ireland. It has won accolades including the British Podcast Award for Best Documentary in 2021 and has been praised by critics. Advocates and survivors have commended the show for elevating their voices and bringing attention to the structural problems that support abuse. And Where is George Gibney? has supported continuous initiatives to enhance accountability and safety in sports and other organisations. Its disclosures have led to renewed enquiries into Gibney's conduct and calls for legislative reform, proving the power of investigative journalism to effect change.Finally, what happened to George Gibney? acts as a potent reflection on tragedy in all of its manifestations. It highlights the individual pain brought on by abuse, the institutional failure as a whole, and the difficulties society faces in addressing such problems. It also emphasises the survivors' tenacity in pursuing justice and change in the face of insurmountable obstacles.

The program also emphasises how critical it is to face misfortune head-on. It forces listeners to consider their own responsibilities in promoting an environment of responsibility and support for survivors by bringing painful realities to light. Where is George Gibney? offers lessons that are applicable to a broad audience, transcending its immediate subject matter in this way.

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singull · 20 days ago

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I’m not even sad about the election results. Crying over the results and the motherfuckers that want to gloat today is a waste of effort.

Right now I’m numb, but there’s definitely a lot of rage bubbling under it.

And there’s so much disappointment.

In the Democrats for fucking this election season up so thoroughly, in everyone that voted with only their wallets of today in mind (because Trump can’t actually promise your wallets will be fairing better under him), disappointment that such a heinous shitfuck could garner enough respect from millions of my fellow countrymen for them to put themselves behind him (even when he has shown time and time again that he doesn’t give a single shit about them and theirs).

With Trump at the helm over what looks like is going to be a completely Republican-run Congress and Supreme Court, they sure as shit will be able to take a lot from me and mine, but my spiteful ass will just have to keep going.

So here’s to spite keeping us fueled for the next few years. Claw in any joy you can get and tell anyone that tries to take it from you to eat shit.

#personal bloggity

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college-girl199328 · 10 months ago

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A case with the potential to disrupt Donald Trump’s drive to return to the White House is putting the Supreme Court uncomfortably at the center of the 2024 presidential campaign.

In arguments Thursday, the justices will, for the first time, wrestle with a constitutional provision adopted after the Civil War to prevent former officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from reclaiming power.

The case is the court’s most direct involvement in a presidential election since Bush v. Gore, a decision delivered a quarter-century ago that effectively delivered the 2000 election to Republican George W. Bush. It comes to a court that has been buffeted by criticism over ethics, which led the justices to adopt their first code of conduct in November, and at a time when public approval of the court is diminished, at near-record lows in surveys.

The dispute stems from the push by Republican and independent voters in Colorado to kick Trump off the state’s Republican primary ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Colorado’s highest court determined that Trump incited the riot in the nation’s capital and is ineligible to be president again as a result and should not be on the ballot for the state’s primary on March 5.

A victory for the Colorado voters would amount to a declaration from the justices, who include three appointed by Trump when he was president, that he did engage in insurrection and is barred by the 14th Amendment from holding office again. That would allow states to keep him off the ballot and imperil his campaign.

A definitive ruling for Trump would end efforts in Colorado, Maine, and elsewhere to prevent his name from appearing on the ballot.

The justices could opt for a less conclusive outcome, but with the knowledge that the issue could return to them, perhaps after the general election in November and in a full-blown constitutional crisis.

The court has signaled it will try to act quickly, dramatically shortening the period in which it receives written briefing and holds arguments in the courtroom.

Trump is separately appealing to the state court a ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, that he was ineligible to appear on that state’s ballot over his role in the Capitol attack. Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine Secretary of State’s rulings are on hold until the appeals play out.

The former president is not expected to attend the Supreme Court session this coming week, though he has shown up for court proceedings in the civil lawsuits and criminal charges he is fighting.

Whatever the justices decide, they see more of Trump, whose criminal charges related to Jan. 6 and other issues. Other election-related litigation was possible.

In 2000, in Bush v. Gore, the court and the parties were divided over whether the justices should intervene.

The conservative-driven 5-4 decision has been heavily criticized ever since, especially given that the court cautioned against using the case as precedent when the unsigned majority opinion declared that “our consideration is limited to the present circumstances.”

Trump’s campaign declined to make anyone available for this story, but his lawyers urged the justices not to delay.

Donald Sherman, the top lawyer at the group behind the ballot challenge, said voters and election officials need to have an answer quickly.

Justice Clarence Thomas is the only sitting member of the court who was on the bench for Bush v. Gore. He was part of that majority.

But three other justices joined the legal fight on Bush’s side: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Bush eventually put Roberts on a federal appeals court and appointed him chief justice. Bush hired Kavanaugh to White House jobs before making him an appellate judge.

Kavanaugh and Barrett were elevated to the Supreme Court, which appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Thomas has ignored calls by some Democratic lawmakers and ethics professors to step aside from the current case. They note that his wife, Ginni Thomas, supported Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Ginni Thomas repeatedly texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the weeks after that election, once referring to it as a “heist,” and she attended the rally that preceded the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters. Nearly two years later, she told the congressional committee investigating the attack that she regretted sending the texts.

Trump lost 60 different court challenges to his false claims that there was massive voter fraud that would have changed the results of that election.

The Supreme Court ruled repeatedly ruled against Trump and his allies in 2020 election-related lawsuits, as well as his efforts to keep documents related to Jan. 6 and his tax returns from being turned over to congressional committees.

But the conservative majority Trump’s appointees cemented has produced decisions that overturned the five-decade-old constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights, and struck down affirmative action in college admissions.

The issue of whether Trump can be on the ballot is just one among several matters related to the former president or Jan. 6 that have reached the high court. The justices declined a request from special counsel Jack Smith to rule swiftly on Trump’s claims that he is immune from prosecution, though the issue could be back before the court soon, depending on the ruling of a Washington-based appeals court.

In April, the court will hear an appeal that could upend hundreds of charges stemming from the Capitol riot, including against Trump.

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nokingsonlyfooles · 1 year ago

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We got a win on this one!

Now, this is a qualified win. This law is the only thing standing between Indigenous groups and another Sixties Scoop (it happened in the States too, but the catchy name comes from Canada), but it's based in tribal sovereignty. That means no oversight for kids in abusive situations if their parents are the right ethnicity - and I grew up seeing a set of adopted tribal kids get abused in my own family, so I'm always going to be wary of that.

US federal legislature is no longer nimble enough to evolve with the times, improving laws and passing them proactively to address problems. We're stuck with the Supreme Court, a body of unelected judges, who downvote or upvote a hodgepodge of laws from the states (and occasional executive orders) on the basis of whether they jibe with a 250 year old document. By the time they get to it, a bunch of states will have passed similar laws, or vastly different ones in protest, and they'll all be struck down or legitimized in one fell swoop.

This is why the US has internal political refugees at the moment. But even a place that seems safer can be made unsafe by a single court decision.

What we need is a better law. What we're gonna get is simple inertia and "if you wanna deal with it, then you deal with it," as if these kids are living on Mars instead of within the borders of a nation that only wants to bother with them when it's convenient. You broke the complex web of tribal cultures that was here before Manifest Destiny, and you have put policies in place to prevent it from ever healing. By the standards of that Capitalism you love so much, you own this situation, as well as many others.

My whole life, I've been told positive change is possible, but shown that the only thing we can do is try to prevent things from getting worse. This thing didn't get worse, so it's gonna go on the back burner again, but it's not better and it's not solved.

This law is still the only thing keeping the US government from perpetrating this specific kind of cultural genocide, it has been challenged before and it will be again... Rather like Roe v. Wade, and you all know how THAT turned out. In the absence of a functional legislative branch, we are building castles of sand.

Hey! This is a thing still!

This was posted yesterday.

#update #indigenous rights #us supreme court #stay on your toes

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bubbles-is-hardcore · 3 years ago

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Okay. I’ve been thinking on this for the past few days, ever since the news dropped. Honestly, I feel like a lot of people are not looking at this issue the right way. Say whatever you want on whether you think a fetus is a living human being or when life truly begins. It’s a philosophical question that will never have a clear cut answer. However, whether or not a fetus is a living human being is not the issue. It simply doesn’t matter. What this all boils down to is Bodily Autonomy. The human right to decide what happens to your physical body.

People say “Abortion is murder! You are killing babies!”

Think about it like this, is it murder to not donate bone marrow to the two year dying of cancer?

Is it murder to not donate your blood every week to supplement the constant demand and shortages of blood products?

Is it murder every time someone dies waiting on the organ transplant list?

The answer to those questions is no. None of those things are murder. Are they unfortunate and heartbreaking? Yes. However, no one is going to prison or getting fined in any of these circumstances because it is unlawful and immoral to force someone to put their health and life at risk to save another. It’s not murder because you didn’t step in front of the bullet to save someone else. In no other instance is there even a discussion on whether we should force someone to use their body to sustain someone else’s life. We do not even force corpses to do that. If you don’t have written permission as an organ donor then none are taken that could save multiple lives and even improve the lives of many more. It’s not anyone else’s decision what happens to your body, even as a corpse.

And I know people like to minimize what it really means to be pregnant and give birth. It’s sugar coated and romanticized but it is a dangerous endeavor whether you want to believe it or not. People die not only in labor but from pregnancy complications all the time, especially in America where we have the HIGHEST maternity mortality rate of all first world countries. In fact, according to the WHO we are only one of two countries whose maternal mortality rate has INCREASED since 2000 (the other being the Dominican Republic). And that rate goes up the younger/older the mother gets. Women choose to take that risk to bring life into this world. They suffer to bring life into this world. 10 year olds who just got their period and are raped will most likely die if they are forced to try and give birth. Pro Life until outside the womb. Doesn’t that child’s life matter? Doesn’t the 11, 12, 13 year olds life matter? Doesn’t the 42 year old mom with 3 other kids life matter?

But as I said before, that’s not what this is about. None of the anti abortion advocates care about life. They have shown that again and again through the policies they block and support. There is no support for mothers and children outside of the womb.

Let’s all call this what it is, a ploy for control. A ploy for the control of women and anyone with a uterus. A ploy for control of the working class and the poor folks of this country. They are the ones that will pay the most dearly for this. People who have the means to “take a vacation” after “getting in trouble” won’t. There is no other reason for this because it is not about life.

Let’s also not forget that the reasoning used in the Supreme Courts decision stated that Roe v Wade was baseless and it’s foundation faulty. That foundation was the right to privacy. Other cases that have been settled on that same basis will now be under threat, all of which have been threatened recently by republicans in office. These cases include, Lawrence v Texas (right to sexual privacy), Griswald v Connecticut (right to contraception for married couples), Obergefell v Hodges (right to same sex marriage), and even Loving v Virginia (right to interracial marriage). I don’t want to wake up in two years to find my marriage nullified. Does it sound like I’m jumping to the worst case? Like I’m catastrophizing? Well two years ago you would have said the same thing about Roe v Wade.

And say what you will on why this is happening be it the falling birth rates, religious extremism, or just good old fashioned misogyny. Both women and men should be furious. The majority of Americans do not support this. The lie of the “Silent Majority” can only last so long. So VOTE and RAGE. Rage and rage and rage until it cannot be ignored.

WE WILL NOT GO BACK

Some sites to visit and donate if you can: The Abortion Fund https://abortionfunds.org Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project https://wrrap.org Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/other-ways-give

#roe v wade #abortion #women #we wont go back #equal rights #conservatism #republican #pro life #pro choice #democracy #gop

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eldacalrissian · 3 years ago

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The US needs a general strike.

Protesting alone will not work. Voting alone will not work. I'm starting to think that citizens of the US need to strike en masse. The economy is already broken. I cannot think of any other way to overcome the will of the oligarchs.

Losing Roe V Wade is just another step in US citizen losing power. Literally losing rights that we take for granted. It goes beyond abortion. This Supreme Court's decision could end gay marriage, transgender medical care and even access to contraceptives in any state.

All it takes to lose your rights is a group motivated enough to play the long game. The last 40 years have shown us that politicians will do anything to protect the people that fund their campaigns and that includes fighting moral precedents as a distraction.

Forced births will guarantee that a class of impoverished people will exist for future generations; people who will be under educated, people who will not have leverage to advocate for themselves, people who will feed the prison industrial complex.

So what do we do? Sure, we could renew our focus and try to vote in progressive politicians, but we see that fail time and time again. Democrats openly do not want progressives in charge. Democrats have regularly failed to enact the literal will of the people.

Voting is important, but Democrats haven't even been able to enforce new voting rights legislation. Voting is absolutely important but we can't pretend it will solve everything. So what about protesting?

Unfortunately protesting is effective for a couple of news cycles and then the weight of them disappears. We have not had a unifying movement, and that has rendered multiple weeks of action into barely a news story. We saw this with Occupy Wall Street and with the BLM protests.

Very little real legislation or lasting effects have been caused by recent protests. On a national level they have been about as effective as a good piece of art - deeply meaningful to the passionate and the equivalent of a bad movie to those who wield the real power.

So what do we do? Half of the US makes less than $50k a year and is under the constant threat of a housing crisis, of increasing income instability, of increased risk of natural disasters, of increasing healthcare costs - all something citizens have expressed opinions about.

Polling shows that US Citizens are more progressive than ever. Single Payer Healthcare, police reform, abortion rights, LGBT rights, rights to use Marijuana, increasing taxes on the wealthy - all of these things are the will of the people.

Studies have shown how time and time again, institutions are not willing to serve the people. We get concessions but we do not get a democracy. Institutions do not take the voices of protesters seriously. Institutions don't even take the voices of voters seriously.

So how can we overcome this power dynamic without violence? How can we grab the reigns and put power into the hands of the many instead of the few? A strike. We know it can work. We see how "The Great Resignation" has affected things. We know workers run the nation.

A work stoppage could bring this country to its knees. The wealth class relies on labor for literally everything. The wealth class can't run things without the working class. This isn't even about political parties anymore. We can easily see it's a class issue.

I have my doubts that US Citizens can unify their demands, but maybe that should be the focus of our discussions. The things I mentioned as popular in the US require smaller pieces to put together. Each state, each city will have different steps to act on.

It is clear that our institutions are failing us. We need to rewrite our constitution. We need to remove the unlimited power of the Supreme Court. We need to stop allowing accelerationist politicians in government. We need ranked choice voting.

Citizens need more power.

#Politics #Progressive politics #Supreme Court #Labor #Civil rights #Human rights #Work stoppage

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that-sw-writer · 5 years ago

Text

Empress for the Evening II

PART ONE, PART THREE

Note: I really don’t know how I feel about this but I dislike everything I write so we’re rolling with it

Summary: After a long cycle the First Order Gala was once again upon you, and your thoughts were fixed on Kylo Ren.

But as always there were plenty of sleazy politicians available to pull you away from your memories of kissing the Supreme Leader after the last Gala. It was time to assert your new position as Queen, and prove your independence.

Word count: 5071

Warnings: pure, unadulterated, tooth-rotting fluffy Kylo

It had been a long cycle. The illness your Father had contracted was more severe than the medical staff had initially thought, and a mere few months after the First Order’s last Gala he had passed away.

In the following months, you barely had any time to process losing him. He had been a widely respected and loved King, but you were quickly forced to step up as Queen – a role which you didn’t feel ready for. Many people told you that authority and leadership suited you, and thankfully you had managed to maintain the high functioning society your Father had for all those cycles.

Despite many nights spent alone silently mourning the loss of your Father, day to day you were in and out of meetings, public appearances and diplomatic endeavours. The steel industry was producing at a higher rate than ever, and you hoped that your Father would have been proud of what you had achieved since his passing.

You faced plenty of insubordination being a Queen of your age, but you stopped it very quickly by demonstrating that you aren’t afraid to exercise your power against those who undermine you. There were however some issues which your advisors consistently brought up which couldn’t be considered insubordinate; one of those was marriage.

It was true, you were young, pretty and heavily sought after by royal families from other planets. But the problem was you didn’t have any desire to marry. Had your Father still been King he would have been advised to marry you off to a planet whom he wished to ally himself with – but he had always taught you not to be a bargaining chip in somebody else’s political game. Now you were the Queen, and you were not about to sell yourself to some stranger in order to please your advisors.

The months flew by, and before you knew it the dreaded annual First Order Gala was upon you once more. This time you would be attending as a Queen rather than a Princess, which gave you plenty of authority to put creeps like Baron Eastley in their place.

As you sat onboard your transport to the Finalizer, your thoughts drifted to the Supreme Leader. The moment he had kissed you outside of your room had played over and over in your head, and the thought of seeing him again made you more nervous every time you thought about it. You told yourself that you were being pathetic – It’s not like Kylo Ren would be spending time thinking about you. It was one night, you had both had a bit to drink, and it was never going to be spoken about again most likely.

You continued to tell yourself this as you approached the hanger for landing. Perhaps you wouldn’t even see the Supreme Leader at the Gala, and if you did you weren’t even sure what to say.

Upon landing you were shown to your quarters for the evening by two Stormtroopers, flanked by your ever-loyal handmaidens. When you arrived at your room, the three women accompanying you were shown to their room next door before bringing your belongings and joining you in your quarters to begin getting you ready for the Gala.

The four of you chatted on as the three women fussed over your hair and makeup, they had been with you through thick and thin – when you were coronated as Queen your court had attempted to assign you new handmaidens, but you had strictly refused. You trusted these women, and discarding them for different people would have broken that trust.

“Do you think the Supreme Leader will talk to you tonight?” Flora finally asked the question on everyone’s lips, and you waited for Jeyne to comment with something optimistic first.

“Of course he will! I bet you’ve been the only thing on his mind since the last Gala!” She beamed at you, and you let out a small chuckle. You hadn’t hesitated in telling your closest confidants about your exchange with the Supreme Leader the previous cycle. You knew they could keep a secret – if anyone from your court had discovered your brief romance with Kylo Ren they would have exploited it for something it wasn’t.

“I’m sure you’re all overstating things.” You gently shook your head, “Last time we had both had a bit to drink and he must have just found me attractive – which is all down to your amazing work.” You praised the three women with a small smile, but they quickly brushed off your compliment.

“Don’t undersell yourself your Majesty, any man would be foolish to turn you down.” Kira looked up from where she was styling your hair and met your eyes in the mirror with a smile.

You continued to chatter along with them as they finalised your look for the evening. Your dress was a shining silver, the area around your chest was made of a sheer fabric which was invisible to the eye, but the silver embellishments were sparsely dotted out around your chest, creating a beautiful illusion. The dress hugged your waist, and the skirt fell to the floor, catching the light as you moved. Your hair fell in cascading waves down your back, and your makeup was done as to compliment your dress perfectly.

“You look incredible.” Kira exhaled a breath, all the ladies were clearly proud of their work – and you were equally as proud of them.

“Thank you, all of you. I’ll never know how you do it.” You smiled at yourself in the mirror.

As was always the routine, just at the moment you were ready to go your escort arrived to take you to the reception hall. Your handmaidens kept to their schedule perfectly every cycle.

“Good luck, your Majesty.” Flora smiled, and you bid farewell to them all as you made your way to the door to meet the Stormtroopers who would be escorting you to the Gala.

When the blast doors opened, your heart skipped a beat and behind you the jaws of your handmaidens hit the floor. Before you stood the Supreme Leader in his all glory, dressed in what you could only assume was the same tunic that he had worn the cycle before.

“I-uh…” You were lost for words, sure you had been mentally preparing yourself to see Kylo Ren again, but not to have him show up at your door before the Gala even began.

“Your Majesty, I know you weren’t expecting me,” He began, seemingly just as nervous as you were, “But I was hoping to escort you this evening.”

You took a second and quickly composed yourself – you were a Queen for goodness sake, not some naïve Princess anymore. “It’d be my honour.” You smiled delicately, and took his arm when prompted.

Out of the corner of your eye you can see your handmaidens exchanging very excited glances as you left.

“May I offer my condolences for the passing of your Father, I’m sure it hasn’t been an easy cycle for you.” He spoke solemnly as the pair of you slowly approached the reception hall.

“Thank you, Supreme Leader.” You looked down, discussing your Father’s passing was still a raw subject, but you’d had plenty of practise at holding it together, “He is sorely missed on our planet.”

“I can imagine.” He replied, “But I also wanted to congratulate you on the work you have done so far. It is my understanding that under your rule the First Order is being supplied with almost double the amount of steel we were before.”

You nodded, “It’s been my first priority to improve worker conditions and boost morale, in turn it has increased production levels. A lucky outcome really.”

“Don’t put it down to luck, ruling suits you. I realised that at the last Gala.”

Your mind drifted back to the pervious cycle when you had swiftly put Baron Eastley in his place, unsurprisingly he was one of the planetary leaders requesting your hand in marriage for his sons.

“That’s kind of you to say, Supreme Leader.” You offered him a cordial smile, which he returned.

“Kylo, please.” He told you, and you nodded. You remembered he had asked you not to call him by his title at the previous Gala, but you didn’t want to assume that things were the same this time around.

There was an awkward air between you both. That elephant in the room that neither of you would talk about, and that was the kiss you had shared.

You reached the entrance and Kylo turned to you, “I’m afraid I’ll have to take my leave.”

He had to enter along with the First Order Supreme Council, and you had no desire to join him. “Thank you for escorting me.” You nodded, before adding, “I hope to see you in there.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” He gave a curt bow, and marched off in another direction, leaving you alone.

You inhaled a deep breath and entered the reception hall, many glances being thrown your way. Perhaps it was the dress grabbing their attention, or maybe it was the fact that you had become Queen so abruptly at such a young age - if these aristocrats loved anything it was gossip.

"Queen Y/N!" A voice called, "Please, join us!" You recognised the man speaking as the representative Chancellor of Vardos. He was standing in amongst a group of other men and women, many of whom you recognised but not well enough to know any of their names.

You nodded, and made your way over to their schmoozing circle, being sure to swipe a glass of champagne from a serving droid on your way over. Time to paint on the fake smile and act happy to see all of these strangers.

"How lovely to see you all." You took a small sip from your glass and stood tall whilst they all looked at you like a pack of hungry dogs.

"We were all terribly sorry to hear about your Father's passing, he was a good man." One woman, who you recognised as a member of the Corellian leadership, spoke first.

"He was." You knew that you would hear plenty of these comments this evening, despite none of these people truly being sorry about his passing. When he had died the First Order's allied planets had sensed an opportunity to infiltrate your planet's economy - after all you were supplying the First Order with something irreplaceable.

"How have you found Queendom so far? I can imagine it hasn't been an easy adjustment to make, particularly alone." This comment was so pointed it made you feel sick to the stomach, imagine having a young woman rule alone? Scandalous...

"I've actually settled in very well, thank you." Your tone was slightly sharp, but you blunted it with a polite smile. Many of the people here tonight had been begging your advisors that they arrange a marriage for you, but you had been refusing them.

You weren't against marriage, but you wanted to marry for the right reasons. You certainly didn't want somebody to marry you simply to usurp your power.

"I've actually been speaking to your advisors about my son, your Majesty. He's a few years older and than you and has plenty of experience-" Thankfully you were saved by the bell before that sentence could finish.

"Please all be upstanding for Supreme Leader Kylo Ren." Your head whipped to the doors which Kylo would enter through and applause rang out through the hall as he walked down the elaborate steps, looking completely indifferent as he always did.

His eyes searched the crowd, and eventually landed on you and you could have sworn you saw him wink at you... but that may have been a trick of the light.

As Kylo descended down the stairs whispers began circulating amongst your group, and it was clear that these people didn't know that Kylo Ren had depth to him beyond stabbing men with a Lightsaber.

"I've heard he's killed men just for making eye contact with him."

"You know the scar? Apparently they could have healed him but he wanted to keep it to make him look more dangerous."

This chatter continued circulating amongst the people stood around you, and eventually they all turned to you to comment - and you cleared your throat, if they wanted something to talk about then you would give them something.

"I'm sure if the Supreme Leader heard you talking about him in such a way he wouldn't hesitate to demonstrate his power to you." You shrugged nonchalantly, "But for what it's worth I think there's more to him than you all assume. I wouldn't believe every rumour you hear."

They all fell silent, unsure of how to respond to your comment so they simply ignored it and changed the subject.

The talk turned to politics, and you largely remained silent unless called upon to comment on your planet's economy, which you did so proudly and with confidence. All of sudden midway through the conversation you noticed everybody staring at you, and you suddenly became very uncomfortable; until you realised that there were looking over your shoulder.

Turning around you nearly collided with Kylo's chest, and he surreptitiously placed a hand on the small of your back to steady you, "I apologise for startling you, your Majesty."

"Not at all," You flashed him a smile, actually relieved that he was here hopefully to rescue you from this conversation, "I should really be more aware of my surroundings."

He slowly dropped his hand from your back before anybody watching could read into the gesture and turned to the group who were all frozen in fear by his presence.

"Thank you all for being here." He addressed them all, and they took this as their cue to begin pushing their way to be the first to talk to him about the airs and graces of their individual planets.

He allowed them all to finish tripping over their words before clearing his throat, "I actually came here to talk to Queen Y/N."

All eyes were suddenly on you, and they all looked like death glares - jealousy was rising in the air but nobody made any move to stand the in way of Kylo Ren.

"I apologise for interrupting." He told them all, and once again his hand was at the small of your back, but this time it was to gently lead you away from the crowd. He came right on time since your champagne flute was empty and you didn't think you could stand another minute of their incessant gossiping.

The two of you walked away from the crowds of people, but it didn't go unnoticed this time around - there were multiple pairs of eyes watching you both.

Very aware of this, Kylo chose not to stand too close to you, which you appreciated.

"I trust you had no interest in remaining part of that." He raised an eyebrow and you chuckled. You both seemed far more comfortable than you initially had when he showed up at your quarters.

"Absolutely not." You replied, shaking your head, "Your entrance actually saved me from a conversation I didn't want to have."

"You don't strike me as the kind of Queen who engages in conversations she doesn't want to have." He smirked slightly.

"And I don't, but on these occasions I have to make exceptions. It turns out I can't spend the entire cycle ignoring all these stuck up politicians' proposals of marriage and show up here alone without causing controversy." You rolled your eyes.

"Marriage? Are you... betrothed?" He suddenly interjected, and your cheeks reddened slightly. Perhaps you had forgotten whose company you were in - you probably shouldn't be discussing such personal political matters with the Supreme Leader.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything." You sheepishly backtracked, "But, um, no I'm not. My advisors are suggesting I marry, but I don't trust the motivations of these proposals."

"You're right not to trust them." He mused, plucking two glasses of champagne from a passing serving droid and handing you one, taking your empty one and placing it back on the tray.

"Thank you." You mumbled, taking a sip, "How do you know I'm right not trusting them?" You wondered why Kylo was so interested in your political affairs, but equally it was nice for someone to give you an honest opinion.

"I think I must confess something." He looked nervous, and suddenly very aware of all the eyes that were stealing glances your way.

You noticed Kylo's posture stiffen, "Is there perhaps somewhere more private we can talk?" You softly asked him, and he nodded, looking relieved that you suggested it.

Taking his arm he led you to the back of the reception hall, where the was a set of blast doors which led to a viewpoint. It was an enclosed area, which looked out over the vast depths of space - it was a beautiful sight, you never got to see the stars up close.

"Wow..." You quietly said under your breath, "It's beautiful."

Kylo was stunned by your awe, perhaps he had become so accustomed to living off planet that he under-appreciated it. In his opinion you were the true sight.

"I apologise, I'm getting distracted." You shook your head and turned to him with a smile on your face, "Now that we don't have an audience, you had something you wished to confess." Your heart was racing at the thought of what he was about to tell you, but equally you willed yourself not to jump to conclusions.

Kylo stepped forward and sheepishly reached out to take one of your hands in his, "After the last Gala, I've taken an interest in your planet but really it was you I wanted to know about." He looked down, suddenly unable to meet your eyes, "You shouldn't be marrying someone from a backwater planet who just wants you for your power, you deserve more than that."

"I do." You quietly agreed with him, and then you met his eyes. You knew that everything the others said about Kylo Ren was true - he was dangerous, and powerful but they didn't see this side of him, the side of him that was vulnerable and caring.

Silence fell between you, and you contemplated what to say next. You felt yourself gravitating towards Kylo uncontrollably and you worried that you were going to fall for the man without any assurance that he was the right man to fall for.

"I have to know; you said you took an interest in me, but I've met with some of your highest ranked officers since becoming Queen... why did you never come?" The question sounded stupid leaving your mouth, but you hoped it was a valid point. Of course, he was the Supreme Leader and had plenty of other responsibilities, but if he cared that much? Surely an exception would have been made.

"I wasn't sure how you felt after the last Gala, I thought perhaps it was just a one off." He looked so nervous, you found it hard to believe this was the same Supreme Leader who had nearly bitten Baron Eastley's head off last cycle.

He hadn't come to your planet because he was worried that it would be awkward? You had thought that would be the problem the other way around...

"I wouldn't say it's a habit of mine to kiss handsome strangers." Part of you was cringing at your corny line, but either way you flashed him a smirk and it seemed to do the trick in making him feel more comfortable.

"That's a shame, because I was hoping you might make a habit of it." His voice was quiet and raspy. He released your hand in favour of pushing a loose strand of hair behind your ear and slowly leaned down towards your lips.

You placed the hand not holding a glass on his chest, and shut your eyes in anticipation of his lips meeting yours... but they never came.

Just before the two of you could kiss the blast doors leading to the viewpoint flew open, and within a split second you and Kylo had leapt away from one another, both cursing under your breath. The whole situation probably still looked incriminating.

"Supreme Leader, Queen Y/N. I'm so sorry, I hope we weren't interrupting anything." Of course it was the Chancellor of Vardos and his entourage who had encroached on your moment. Just judging by the look on his face he knew full well what he was doing, clearly they had all been waiting to follow you this entire time.

Out of the corner of your eye you could see Kylo's fists clenching, so you jumped in before he could show them his temper, "Not at all, Chancellor. In fact we were just leaving, the viewpoint is all yours." You gave the most cordial smile, and attempted to move past the group of them.

Just as you brushed past the Corellian representative from earlier, she placed a hand on your shoulder to prevent you from leaving, "You're welcome to join us, your Majesty, I'm sure the Supreme Leader has many other people to meet with tonight."

You knew these politicians and their games. They were trying trying to keep you there in order to ruffle your feathers, but equally if you left now they would take it as confirmation that there was something between you and Kylo.

You exchanged a glance with him, both of you knowing that you had to split up for a while in order to stop the gossip before it spread.

Kylo had dropped all manners in his frustration and simply grunted before pushing through the small crowd and leaving the viewpoint, which left you alone with the flock of vultures.

"You and the Supreme Leader certainly seem to be well-acquainted." The Chancellor raised his eyebrow at you. The entire group of them was insufferable, they acted as though they were above everybody else when you knew that your planet was amongst the most important to be represented. What they really wanted to was to tear you down, and you wouldn't allow it.

"We had business matters to discuss." You gave a nonchalant shrug, and he was quick to respond to you.

"It certainly looked like more than that from where we were standing."

You took a moment to sip at your champagne, appearing entirely unbothered by the Chancellor's comment. "That sounds like an interesting story Chancellor, please let me know how it ends." Your smile was contradicted by the sarcasm dripping from your tone.

"Perhaps if you were to reconsider one of our proposals of marriage, it would put our minds at ease that you aren't... how do I put this? In bed with the Supreme Leader." The Corellian woman spoke up this time and you used all your self control to not smash your glass over her head there and then.

Yes, it was almost unheard of for a young woman in your position to be unmarried, and particularly to be discarding the idea of a political marriage. But you had your morals, and you were not going to turn your back on them. You knew the comment about Kylo was just to illicit a reaction from you, so you purposely kept your cool.

"I have not turned down your marriage proposals in favour of Supreme Leader Ren. If you must know, your group of suitable bachelors have the collective intelligence of a Dewback with no legs. If I am to rule alongside someone, I will choose who. I will not be courted by your naive sons and senators who serve as your puppets to take over my economy." Without another word you pushed past them and left the viewpoint with your head held high.

Once the blast doors shut behind you and you were out of sight you exhaled a breath you didn't realise you had been holding.

You saw Kylo talking to a ginger man who you recognised as the General, but when he saw you emerge from the viewpoint he swiftly made his way to your side.

"Perhaps next cycle I can make it through an entire Gala without somebody attempting to marry me off in order to take over my planet's resources." You sighed and looked at him, feeling rather defeated. It was frustrating that you could be so successful, but because you were young and a woman you would never gain everybody's respect.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you alone with them." He looked at you apologetically, but you brushed it off.

"You know you couldn't have stayed in there without sparking some ridiculous rumours." You were certainly ready to retire for the evening, and before you could tell Kylo this he had beaten you to it.

Once again plucking the empty champagne flute from your hand he placed both glasses on the nearest serving tray before turning back to face you, "May I see you back to your quarters?"

"Yes, you may." You nodded, now past the point of caring if anyone saw you leaving with Kylo. After all, you could do a lot worse than the Supreme Leader of the First Order.

You took his arm, as was the routine now, and he led you to the door you had entered through all those hours ago.

"I take it you had some choice words for your friends back there." He smirked slightly, and you exhaled a small laugh. You never thought you'd be telling the Supreme Leader about how you had insulted a number of his guests.

"I may have compared their potential suitors to a Dewback without legs." You now realised how ridiculous that insult had sounded, but it did illustrate your point exceptionally well.

Kylo let out a genuine laugh, something you doubted many people heard from him, "That's certainly inventive."

You leisurely walked back to your quarters, but when you reached the blast doors your heart sank... this was reminiscent of the previous Gala, and the thought of going so long without seeing Kylo again was making you feel sick.

"Kylo, I-" You began, looking down at the floor to avoid eye contact, "-I don't want this to end the same way it did before."

He gently placed his hand beneath your chin and brought your face up to look at him, "It won't, I'm not letting you get away this time."

Kylo was determined not to lose you this time. When he had heard news of the numerous planets competing for your hand in marriage he was certain that he had missed his chance and you would be attending the Gala with your new husband. But here you were standing before him, still denying the advances of others.

His hand brought your face further towards his, and within moments his lips were finally on yours - this time with no interruptions.

You reached up and rested your hands at the base of his neck, and he responded by pulling you flush again his chest by your waist.

He kissed you with fervor, his movements were becoming hastier and you weren't complaining. It wasn't long before you both separated for air but you remained close, his forehead pressed against yours.

"Do you want to come in?" You breathlessly asked him, not knowing what had come over you to propose something so bold.

"Yes." He didn't hesitate to respond, and you pulled yourself away from him long enough to take his hand and drag him through the blast doors to your room.

When you were inside Kylo stood and looked at you up and down, his brown eyes were filled with lust and you imagined that yours didn't looks dissimilar.

"You look incredible." He breathed out, before lunging towards you to capture your lips once again in a hungry kiss.

You gladly fell into his arms and melted into the kiss - somehow even with his tongue in your mouth and hand weaving its way through your hair he still managed to be gentle, as if he were scared you'd break.

He pushed you backwards as you made out, and soon the backs of your legs met with the bed. With a small push you fell onto the soft mattress, dragging Kylo with you.

He braced his own impact in order to not squash you beneath his massive frame, and the two of you remained there, mouths working in synchronisation. Eventually Kylo broke the kiss and began peppering kisses along your jaw, and down to your neck whilst his hands explored every curve of your body. It was as if you were a temple and he was worshiping you.

Meanwhile your hands were slowly running up and down his biceps. Despite still wearing his tunic and undershirt, you could feel that he was built like a brick house beneath it all.

Out of the blue Kylo pulled his face away and looked down at you with swollen lips, panting slightly, "Marry me."

You were stunned, your mouth unable to form the words at first because you were so busy processing what had just been said. You reached up and ran a hand through his dark hair, "Are you serious?" You finally asked, quietly.

Kylo faltered for a moment, fearing rejection, "I mean it." He eventually responded, before sounding more sure of himself, "You said you didn't trust the motivations of the other marriage proposals, but trust me."

Your heart was beating so fast you thought you must have been dreaming, but this was real Kylo Ren, the man who ruled the galaxy was offering you his hand in marriage.

"My planet..." You whispered, hating yourself for thinking about your duties right now but you were a Queen, you couldn't just forget about your people... not even for him.

"I'm not asking you to abandon your people-" He slowly began placing chaste kisses to your lips and jaw between his words, "I would never undermine you as Queen, but you could also be my Empress - we could rule the galaxy together."

"Yes." You suddenly blurted out before you could stop yourself. But then you realised you didn't want to stop yourself, there was an undeniable connection between you and Kylo and the motive behind his proposal was true sentiment - not a political move.

"Yes?" He paused the slow movements of his lips against your skin and looked deep into your eyes.

"Yes." A huge smile broke out on your face, and a feeling of undeniable joy rose up within you.

A genuine smile also appeared on Kylo's face, and you had never seen him look so... cute. You crashed your lips together in an instant.

There were plenty of unspoken details, but you were certain you could overcome them. Your advisors had been pushing you to accept a marriage proposal, and you could only imagine their shock when you return having accepted one from the Supreme Leader.

Come the next Gala you would be greeting the condescending politicians not only as a Queen, but as Empress.

#kylo ren x reader #kylo ren #kylo ren imagine #kylo ren x you #kylo ren x y/n #kylo x reader #kylo x you #kylo x y/n

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deadpresidents · 4 years ago

Text

“I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate." At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict— between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.

Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that "America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat." We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that "The Nazi slogan for destroying us...was 'Divide and Conquer.' Our American answer is 'In Union there is Strength.'" We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's "better angels," and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.”

-- General James Mattis (!), former Secretary of Defense under President Trump, June 3, 2020.

#Protests #President Trump #James Mattis #General Mattis #Wow

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noctomania · 3 years ago

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I want you to understand the cause and effect of what has led to what is going on in texas at least re: abortion laws.

First off let me clarify: Roe v Wade was not law...yet. When you see a ___ v ___, that is an opinion. Not in the sense you may think. It's an opinion decided through litigation which means it's a powerful opinion that has been hammered out through the judicial process of a lawsuit being drawn up, and worked out in court. It could be a local, state, or federal court. Typically the ones that are most significant are federal, or ones that have come before the US Supreme Court - either because it is the federal government that is being challenged, the defendant petitions to move it to federal, or that the case has been elevated through appeals.

There are particular circumstances that determine if a case can go federal level:

"Federal court jurisdiction, by contrast, is limited to the types of cases listed in the Constitution and specifically provided for by Congress. For the most part, federal courts only hear:

Cases in which the United States is a party;

Cases involving violations of the U.S. Constitution or federal laws (under federal-question jurisdiction);

Cases between citizens of different states if the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 (under diversity jurisdiction); and

Bankruptcy, copyright, patent, and maritime law cases.

In some cases, both federal and state courts have jurisdiction. This allows parties to choose whether to go to state court or to federal court."

Federal courts may hear cases concerning state laws if the issue is whether the state law violates the federal Constitution.

In the case of Roe v Wade, the attorney's filed to the Supreme Court since the argument was that the state law was a violation of a federal law - specifically the 14th amendment assertion of right to privacy. That is what determines the jurisdiction in this case.

RvW was decided in 1973 with a 7-2 ruling in favor of Roe's right to privacy and ultimately right to choose how to treated her pregnancy. Why hasn't it been turned into law? Obvious reasons over the years include what party is in power in executive, congressional, or even judicial circles. Right now though we have a D in the executive and congress, but something many are overlooking is the critically important and understates judicial branch - which holds significant changes Trump installed.

Also regarding congressional, though there is a stronger hold on the house (even with 3 vacancies), the senate is just barely D majority with 50 R, 48 D and 2 independent as shown in the charts below. The two Independent Senators, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, caucus with the Democrats which brings it 50/50 and the US VP - Harris (D) in this case - is the President of the senate and ultimately serves as a tie breaker for votes as well as situations like this even divide of party members. Were the VP a republican than republicans would still have a senate majority.

I will dive more into what's going on with the senate and why even with a D majority it isn't where it needs to be as it's a bit less straight forward.

So how the hell are abortion rights being challenged? Why aren't the all powerful democrats doing anything?!

Well, they are and have been doing a lot - and I urge you in moments when you are frustrated by feeling as though "dems aren't doing anything" to dig deeper to understand how our government operates. It's very clear there is a poor comprehension of our civics system by the general population which is why I'm using this as an opportunity to not only inform but also to learn more myself. I was educated primarily in Texas public education system. I was privileged enough to have decent teachers, but there is still much to learn. I'm doing research as I write this. I've already learned a lot. Come learn with me!

Alright, you're on board with learning more? Great choice! Let's get into it.

So with dem control of executive and congressional branch, all that is left is judicial.

"Trump appointed 54 federal appellate judges in four years, one short of the 55 Obama appointed in twice as much time."

Trump also had a major influence on the nation’s highest court. The three Supreme Court justices he appointed – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – are the most by any president since Ronald Reagan (who appointed four) and the most by any one-term president since Herbert Hoover

Donald Trump has appointed and the Senate has confirmed 220 Article III federal judges through November 1, 2020, his fourth year in office.

The average number of federal judges appointed by a president through November 1 of their fourth year in office is 200.

Judges are supposed to be neutral impartial parties who use only what is presented in court and through the judicial process (which involves looking at current standing laws) to determine their decisions in court instead of using their personal opinion or political sway to inform them. However, as we saw all too often, trump was not interested in impartiality. He was interested in control, asserting his own personal opinion, even on occasion insisting he himself as president had more control than the constitution actually allows. So with that conflict and the fact he installed so many judges really makes huge impact on the judicial branch of our government. Since every branch is supposed to be fair and equal this causes a lot of road block when one branch is neither fair nor equal. You can't simply use the other two the gain up on the third - though in this case that would be convenient for dems, it would be much less convenient when the parties were reversed. It's also important to acknowledge the reality that D are not always impartial either - which again we will get to after judicial chat - nor are all R unfair. This can be a hard pill to swallow, even for me. Reality is not always easy to accept.

So of course appointments made by trump, of which there were many, can not be trusted to actually be acting in good faith, but in favor of personal or political interests (which also often come down to personal interest of a financial persuasion). When judges are not impartial, they may make decisions that ultimately contradict what was presented in court or what the law of the land says. Typically if a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee (you can see an example here of the first day of Amy Comey Barrett's hearing day 1/3) determines that there is a conflict of interest or that they are illgitimate, then ideally a judge will be blocked from appointment. This clearly also depends on the makeup and impartiality of the Senate and thus the Committee. The Committee will debate and vote on whether or not to confirm every nomination made by a President. (it used to require 3/5 of the senate or 60 votes but since 2017 only requires a "simple majority" or 51 votes for confirmation)

I want to take a quick aside here and go a little philosophical in understanding judicial impartiality, because I hope it will help you have some perspective on how it's an inherently difficult matter. Ultimately the court's impartiality comes down to checks/balances and faith. Not religious faith, but faith in humanity and honesty. Trusting that there is no hidden motive or lies or manipulation at play. We tend to have to rely heavily on the checks and balances part since faith in humanity can be easily manipulated with lobbying and politicians eagerness to look bipartisan for popularity in elections (appealing as more bipartisan is considered a way of winning over more votes like centrists and those just left and right of it). Checks and balances allows oversight of the 3 branches over one another and attempting to keep the scales balanced in order to prevent any one branch being too powerful and ultimately to avoid the US being something more like a monarchy - which was a primary goal at the time of forming the constitution and government since it is what we had fought to escape in the first place.

"So judges aren't allowed their 1st amendment rights?!"

Humans are merely humans no matter what title they have or role they play and humans are inherently flawed and partial. Nobody is perfect and some make mistakes as well as bad faith decisions for ulterior motives (could be a matter of loyalty to well funded lobbyists or even general unchecked and ultimately supported ignorance or a power grab). After and throughout checks and balances, that is where the faith part comes in that we hope we can trust judges to put their personal opinion aside and go with what the evidence presented in court and the law and super precedents tell them. We trust the Committee to do their due diligence in researching nominees and asking them tough questions. Realistically everyone can and likely will have some kind of opinion on any major issue, so it is not that anyone expects a justice to not have a personal opinion, only that they not use it to determine their decision in court. So, say i was a judge looking at a defendant accused of a civil rights infringement and i personally felt that they were guilty but there was no or not enough "valid" evidence to prove it, I couldn't assert they are guilty just based off my own opinion. I would have to depend on the evidence shown in court proving that it has infringed on precedents or existing law.

(All the appointments made by trump can be viewed more in detail here.)

"BLAHBLAHBLAH WHAT ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT"

It would be too tumultuous for me to dig into each of the 3 Supreme Court judge appointments by trump in regards to current issues around Roe v Wade, so I'm going to focus on one that is likely most relevant in particular: Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett was an appointment made when Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing caused a vacancy in the court. (Why didn't she retire under Obama? The Senate was GOP controlled which made the odds of a pro-choice appointment being confirmed low). RGB was well known for being a strong advocate for the right to choose and for a long time was a stronghold in the court to ensure Roe v Wade was upheld. Since trump wouldn't want to lose too many votes from women and allies to women, he made the clear choice to appoint a woman which is what i would call performative in the case that though Barrett is a woman she does not particularly stand on the side of women's rights.

In day two of Barrett's confirmation hearing, Senator Klobuchar honed in on Barrett's opinions regarding Roe v Wade - especially as to whether it is considered what is called a "super precedent", an important matter when talking about codification. Klobuchar makes it clear that Barrett has said she finds Brown v BoE to be a super precedent despite the Supreme Court never impressing that opinion, but refuses to consider Roe v Wade a super precedent despite that being a Supreme Court opinion. Barrett's argument is that "scholarly literature" she has read has asserted it is not a super precedent because calls for its overrule has never ceased, where as cases such as Brown v Board "nobody questions anymore". Klobuchar digs in again asking if US v Virginia Military is a "super precedent" and Barrett refuses to answer - or as she phrases it "grade" - because it wasn't one of the cases Barrett spoke about in an article she had written.

After Klobuchar asked Barrett if Roe v Wade is a super precedent, Barrett asked Klobuchar how the Senator defines a super precedent. Reasonably so, Klobuchar - who is a senator and not a judge - scoffs and puts that responsibility back on Barrett who was nominated to be a Supreme Court judge. Barrett obliges and asserts a definition that she uses is of (supposedly not conservative) ONE scholarly opinion which depends on a case being "so well settle that no political actors and no people seriously push to overrule"

In a scholarly opinion in 2006 by Michael J Gerhardt at University of North Carolina School of Law defined a super precedent in many ways one being "decisions whose correctness is no longer a viable issue for courts to decide; it is no longer a matter on which courts will expend their limited resources."

However:

in the Roberts hearings, Charles Fried, a prominent conservative legal scholar at Harvard, agreed explicitly that Roe was a superprecedent. As solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Fried had asked the court to overturn Roe. But testifying on behalf of Judge Roberts, he said that Roe had become a super-duper precedent that would not and should not be overturned, because it was reaffirmed in 1992 and extended in subsequent decisions protecting gay rights and the right to die.

Here is a good example of what happens in academia and why i take "scholarly research" with a heap of salt since I have experience in doing scholarly research. When you are doing research, your audience is trusting that you have run through all the hard work of researching both sides of a specific matter - not just looking up opinions based on whether they are from a conservative or a liberal as that is not supposed to be what determines their opinion on any particular matter.

You are supposed to be actually looking into all the differing opinions on the specific subject matter. While it does help to have a context of the profile of the one giving the opinion, it is the evidence they present in their argument that is what should be prioritized in research. The audience is also trusting that the sources the researcher uses are valid, researched, and impartial and that any studies they use are peer reviewed and use proper methodology and are also impartial without any sway from funders. Since many academic resources that would elaborate on these details are often gatekept through paywalls or language or other accessibility barriers, it can be difficult for the general population to do their own research - the majority of which do not have access for one reason or another - they are left with nothing but to choose to have faith the researcher they are reading did their job earnestly.

Barrett focusing on opinions from scholars (actually it seems she is more dependent on one particular scholar's opinion - Gerhardt as seen in notes 128-132) based on whether or not they are typically conservative scholars is basing it on an irrelevant matter when she should have been taking on all opinions about super precedents and digging into comparing and contrasting them based on whether or not they hold water. It seems more like she sought a defense for her pre-determined opinion and insulated it from challenge by excluding any other assertions despite their significance. She ultimately failed at her responsibility as a researcher.

On Wednesday 9/2/21, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to not block Texas SB8, a decision that weakens Roe v Wade.

Now this has been a very long form way of spelling out just SOME of the impact that trump has had on the judicial branch. I want to now go back to 2016 when he was elected, and try to extrapolate why what happened in that election was a serious failure in regards to those responsible for casting their votes: The People.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

"We the people" is every single resident and/or citizen of the nation at any time. The constitution is essentially a contract drawn up between every single one of us including those born and raised here, those who move here, those who's communities were here before the formation of the nation, and those who may be a citizen but living elsewhere. The diversity of The People in every faucet of human life makes this document necessarily complicated and amendable. In consequence the way in which our government is also complicated but also amendable. One matter that has been a point of contention since the dawning of the nation is the right to vote.

Who could vote & When (.):

1776: white men over 21 who owned land

1870 Racial barriers eliminated tho 15th is not enforced by states

1920: white women can vote

1924: Native american's given voting rights

1964: Civil Rights Act - all above 21y/o may vote regardless of identifiers such as race - ensures Black people's right to vote

1971: Voting age lowered to 18

1984: Accessibility extended to disabled americans by setting accessibility standards

In between all of these are other matters that challenged the accessibility to voting for one population or another such as literacy tests, naturalization, and polling taxes. Many of the challenges were directly challenging to People of Color particularly Black Women. To this day there are still many who must fight to assert their right - a right that should never be denied, never be thought of as less than inherent. Access is less a concern for the wealthy and well to do as their needs are never on the line the way it is for people who are poor, Black, disabled, immigrant, or even just have a primary language other than English.

For those of us who have never had to fight to utilize our right to vote in our life have too often shown that we do not respect the power in this right. Or rather know exactly how powerful it is and choose to use that power in a destructive way because we aren't getting our faves. For the first many many years I was eligible to vote, I refused to at all because I do not like how our government and politicians conducts themselves. As soon as I learned about the filibuster I was so pissed I didn't want to partake at all. Have I be impacted by this personally? To an effect, but not in a way that impacts my life significant enough for me to really notice. But in congruence with other privileged decisions not to vote, it has certainly impacted many lives. In a nation where communities are still fighting to have the law meant to protect them properly enforced, it is entirely a privilege abused to choose not to vote.

Though I was 18 in 2007, 2016 I cast my first vote.

Why? Because it was finally looking as though I may face personal consequences if I didn't. Prior to 2016 i wasn't worried bc there was obama, i wasn't old enough to vote when bush was up for relection and seeing him win again embittered me further. by the time I was 18, I saw how unreliable 3rd party was despite my parents being all in that gambit, and otherwise it all felt like nobody was paying attention to the issues only on popularity contests. All i thought of though was my perspective on the matter. It was all me-centric, my choice to withhold from voting in any election. When trump started to look less like a joke and actually got traction, I saw my neighbors trump signs and i looked at where i was in life. I had also began to actually do the work and stop letting apathy guide my decisions, but to rather listen to my humanity and my responsibility as my neighbor's neighbor.

Quite literally. At the time my neighbor was a Black woman. I only spoke to her once and it was when she came by to selflessly make sure I was going to be ok when our landlord was kicking us out to sell the place out from under our feet - something I hadn't even considered doing yet seemed like second nature for her to do (to be fair i was struggling to find a place but i've no idea about her life). I wish i had gotten her name and stayed in touch, it's kind-hearted people like that that are hard to come by. I'm still working on being as selfless.

I was and am proud to have not only voted in 2016, but for my first vote to have been for a woman. I was scared and for someone other than myself for once in 2016. I had high hopes for Clinton based on name recognition and basic common sense.

Humans are not perfect. Nor are they inherently humble.

Trump encouraged arrogance among the most ignorant leaning right. Sanders encouraged arrogance in the most ignorant leaning left. Clinton seemed to always get the most dramatic fire though from both sides, which signaled to me some kind of mess was going on. My own parents tried to sell me on Sanders, but by this point I had a better concept of how to properly research and untangle the mythologies that were parroted by my own parents about Clinton. Even when I proved their parroted lies wrong they were unwilling to concede, only to move the goal post or deflect.

Now, I get to my point.

Which is to really smack upside the head of anyone who chose not to vote in 2016, everyone who is left or liberal but voted for trump, everyone who wrote in someone else. If trump hadnt made it in as POTUS, paired with the republican majority senate, the landscape of the judicial branch would not have faced such a conservative shift, it wouldn't have given mcconnell so much influence, it wouldn't have resulted in the pandemic being so much worse than it needed to be. Many lives would have been spared. You can only blame the government for so long until you realize we are the government, we install the government, and we hold power we must use wisely. We the People.

Many who voted for clinton have been critical of her. As we always should be critical of those we choose in any level of government. We the people hold responsibilities that build this nation from the ground up, and without adherence to those responsibilities it puts other's rights in danger. When we decide that something doesn't matter that much to us or weighing it against the consequences we may personally face - you're failing in your responsibility to your neighbor who is likely doing far more justice to you than you are extending to them.

Yes my white people i look at you.

Yes my white men I look at you.

Yes my white queers I look at you.

Yes my white degree holders I look at you.

Yes white youth I look at you where I once was. When I was younger and arrogant and naive and apathetic and bitter and I let all that guide my choices instead of my concern for the neighbor who was looking out for me.

I still matter in the formation and function of tomorrow's government and I'm going to make sure I let my impact be constructive for all my neighbors who have extended such courtesy to me by not shirking my main duty to make an informed vote in every election i may partake in from local to national.

The differences among us in this nation may seemingly tend to fall along party lines, what the real metric is:

Do you give a fuck outside your own home?

Or is it just about what you want, what you think, what you feel? Nothing in this nation is just involving you or your bestie or your family, we're in this together whether we like it or not. Trust me as someone who struggles daily to find the humanity in others, I know how toxic that can be to your perspective when you give into it. Believe in benefit of the doubt, believe in change, believe in your power to do good for others. Believe and invest in your humanity.

While i can be mad at conservative votes for trump that was to be expected. I'm far more disappointed in the right AND DUTY to vote being given up by so many on the left simply because their fave didn't make it to the finals. That is not how establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, or secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. AOC and Pressley and Porter did not make it where they are by their supportive constituents abdicating their right to vote.

I accept my faults in never having voted before 2016 even in local elections. It was stupid and selfish and 2016 woke me up to that reality. You don't go from 0 to trump overnight. Do you accept your fault in not voting in 2016 when one of the most detrimental candidates was running and won?

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queensqewed0722 · 4 years ago

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MR. QUEEN: POST-SERIES THOUGHTS

Mr. Queen ended on episode 20 to very high ratings, its popularity spawning two spinoff episodes. Kudos to the cast, especially to drama leads Kim Jung Hyun and Shin Hye Sun who played their characters very well.

One thing about the drama that I think made it a hit was the comedy. The whole cast, especially, Shin Hye Sun, were pitch-perfect in their comedic timing. Hye Sun was especially convincing as Jang Bong Hwan, a 21st century man in a Joseon woman's body, down to her mannerisms and tone. And she was equally convincing when she shifted to the character of the young Joseon Queen Cheorin, otherwise known as Kim So Yong. I've never seen Hye Sun's other works before but she made me a fan with this drama. She isn't exactly as physically gorgeous as other actresses but she has this genuine prettiness and a certain appeal that grows on you the longer you look at her. And it helps a lot that she has this bright smile. She kind of resembles Moon Geun Yeong, especially in those scenes when she dressed as the young nobleman Lee Saeng Mang. It reminded me of Geun Yeong in Painter Of The Wind.

Shin Hye Sun somehow managed to convey the conflict and emotional turmoil of Kim So Yong over her duty to her clan and the genuine love that she felt for her husband. At the same time, when she was Jang Bong Hwan, she was able to portray his cockiness, arrogance and supreme self-confidence. When she flirted with the concubines and the court maids, it didn't come off as icky and uncomfortable because what the viewer saw was a man stuck in a woman's body. It was like watching a person in a costume. Yet she was able to show the shift to So Yong's character with a slight change in her facial expression or the look in her eyes. Despite the drama's genre, Shin Hye Sun still managed to pull off a highly nuanced portrayal of two people with distinct personalities.

Kim Jung Hyun as King Cheoljeong was also effective in portraying a seemingly inept and weak king who actually hid a keen intelligence and strong will. You could see his anger and outrage during those moments when he felt powerless against his opponents. And it was quite charming and heartwarming to watch him slowly fall for his queen, confused over her straightforward character and strange speech, yet finding himself drawn to her because of them.

And therein lies my point of dissatisfaction with this drama. I think it became too engrossed with the comedy of So Bong (the Bong Hwan/So Yong composite) and the romance with Cheoljeong, that it failed to dig deeper and show the viewers the conflict and dilemma of these two distinct persons forced to occupy the same body. It never really explained why Bong Hwan and So Yong's souls just happened to end up finding each other and sharing one body. Was Bong Hwan a descendant of So Yong and Cheoljeong? Or was he her reincarnated self?

And what about that glaring plot hole of how Cheoljeong will reconcile his queen’s character to the person he fell in love with once Bong Hwan’s soul is gone from her body? Although he never really believed that there was another person in her all along, he still felt that there was something missing in the end. Was So Yong’s sudden moments of expressive speech supposed to convince the viewers that her true personality, the one that had been forced into hiding because of her upbringing and the expectations put on her, is very similar to Bong Hwan, although in a female version?

There should have been moments of confrontation between Bong Hwan and So Yong when her soul had reawakened, and a moment when they both made the conscious decision to help Cheoljeong because they both genuinely cared for him and believed in him. (Like all the other viewers, I do believe Bong Hwan grew fond of Cheoljeong, over and above the influence of So Yong's own emotions, although I never saw his own feelings for Cheoljeong as romantic.) I think this lack of interaction between Bong Hwan and So Yong made the end feel tacked on for me, sort of a deus ex machina. All of a sudden, we are made to believe that So Yong had been conscious all along inside her mind, even as Bong Hwan occupied it with her. Suddenly, we are told that those moments when So Bong was being affectionate towards the king, especially those moments when they became physically intimate, were all So Yong. So I guess that explains why Bong Hwan always blacked out during those times and never remembered anything when he regained consciousness. But it would have helped if the foundation for such a plot development was laid down along the way.

And what happened to Bong Hwan's own life in his own time? We are just shown in the last episode that he was a victim of the corruption of politician Han Pyo-jin, a descendant of another Mr. Han whom he met when he was in So Yong’s body. It would have been good if there were also scenes showing Bong Hwan’s life as a high-flying chef, to allow the audience to better appreciate him as a person, distinct from So Bong.

In fact, I think the spinoff episodes would have been a lot better if they were made to focus on the backstories of these two main characters. There was a brief portion showing So Yong’s stubborn insistence to see Cheoljeong before her selection and by doing so, giving herself the chance to evaluate if she still wanted to be his queen. Perhaps it was meant to show that she was actually a strong-headed and willful young woman. Why couldn’t they have used these special episodes to show more of So Yong and Bong Hwan’s stories, and even Cheoljeong’s backstory, instead of those scenes of the other characters? To me, those extra scenes were just funny, but served no actual purpose to the story.

All in all, Mr. Queen was a fun ride, the kind of drama that made me laugh. It made me discover Shin Hye Sun, and re-introduced me to Kim Jung Hyun (whom I first watched in CLOY but never really liked as Go Seung Jun). Both of them are excellent actors and I look forward to their future projects. I do hope they get to work together again, but this time in a different genre, maybe a serious drama.

The key to enjoying Mr. Queen is not to ask it for more than it can give, and to find the hidden gems in what would otherwise have been just another comedy fusion sageuk.

#Mr. Queen #tvn drama #tvn #kdrama #shin hye sun #kim jung hyun #king cheoljong #queen cheorin #kim so yong #Jang Bong Hwan #fusion sageuk

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 years ago

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 11, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

On the twentieth anniversary of the day terrorists from the al-Qaeda network used four civilian airplanes as weapons against the United States, the weather was eerily similar to the bright, clear blue sky of what has come to be known as 9/11. George W. Bush, who was president on that horrific day, spoke in Pennsylvania at a memorial for the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who, on September 11, 2001, stormed the cockpit and brought their airplane down in a field, killing everyone on board but denying the terrorists a fourth American trophy.

Former president Bush said: “Twenty years ago, terrorists chose a random group of Americans, on a routine flight, to be collateral damage in a spectacular act of terror. The 33 passengers and 7 crew of Flight 93 could have been any group of citizens selected by fate. In a sense, they stood in for us all.” And, Bush continued, “The terrorists soon discovered that a random group of Americans is an exceptional group of people. Facing an impossible circumstance, they comforted their loved ones by phone, braced each other for action, and defeated the designs of evil.”

Recalling his experience that day, Bush talked of “the America I know.”

“On America's day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab for a neighbor's hand and rally to the cause of one another…. At a time when religious bigotry might have flowed freely, I saw Americans reject prejudice and embrace people of Muslim faith…. At a time when nativism could have stirred hatred and violence against people perceived as outsiders, I saw Americans reaffirm their welcome to immigrants and refugees…. At a time when some viewed the rising generation as individualistic and decadent, I saw young people embrace an ethic of service and rise to selfless action.”

Today’s commemorations of that tragic day almost a generation ago seemed to celebrate exactly what Bush did: the selfless heroism and care for others shown by those like Welles Crowther, the man in the red bandana, who helped others out of danger before succumbing himself; the airplane passengers who called their loved ones to say goodbye; neighbors; firefighters; law enforcement officers; the men and women who volunteered for military service after the attack.

That day, and our memories of it, show American democracy at its best: ordinary Americans putting in the work, even at its dirtiest and most dangerous, to take care of each other.

It is this America we commemorate today.

But even in 2001, that America was under siege by those who distrusted the same democracy today’s events commemorated. Those people, concentrated in the Republican Party, worried that permitting all Americans to have a say in their government would lead to “socialism”: minorities and women would demand government programs paid for with tax dollars collected from hardworking people—usually, white men. They wanted to slash taxes and government regulations, giving individuals the “freedom” to do as they wished.

In 1986, they had begun to talk about purifying the vote; when the Democrats in 1993 passed the so-called Motor Voter law permitting people to register to vote at certain government offices, they claimed that Democrats were buying votes. The next year, Republicans began to claim that Democrats won elections through fraud, and in 1998, the Florida legislature passed a voter ID law that led to a purge of as many as 100,000 voters from the system before the election of 2000, resulting in what the United States Commission on Civil Rights called “an extraordinarily high and inexcusable level of disenfranchisement,” particularly of African American voters.

It was that election that put George W. Bush in the White House, despite his losing the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore by more than a half a million votes.

Bush had run on the promise he would be “a uniter, not a divider,” but as soon as he took office, he advanced the worldview of those who distrusted democracy. He slashed government programs and in June pushed a $1.3 trillion cut through Congress. These measures increased the deficit without spurring the economy, and voters were beginning to sour on a presidency that had been precarious since its controversial beginnings.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, hours before the planes hit the Twin Towers, a New York Times editorial announced: “There is a whiff of panic in the air.”

And then the planes hit.

“In our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment,” Bush said. America had seemed to drift since the Cold War had ended twelve years before, but now the country was in a new death struggle, against an even more implacable foe. To defeat the nation’s enemies, America must defend free enterprise and Christianity at all costs.

In the wake of the attacks, Bush’s popularity soared to 90 percent. He and his advisers saw that popularity as a mandate to change America, and the world, according to their own ideology. “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” he announced.

Immediately, the administration focused on strengthening business. It shored up the airline industry and, at the advice of oil industry executives, deregulated the oil industry and increased drilling. By the end of the year, Congress had appropriated more than $350 billion for the military and homeland security, but that money would not go to established state and local organizations; it would go to new federal programs run by administration loyalists. Bush’s proposed $2.13 trillion 2003 budget increased military spending by $48 billion while slashing highway funding, environmental initiatives, job training, and other domestic spending. It would throw the budget $401 billion in the red. Republicans attacked any opposition as an attack on “the homeland.”

The military response to the attacks also turned ideological quickly. As soon as he heard about the attacks, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked his aides to see if there was enough evidence to “hit” Iraqi president Saddam Hussein as well as al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In fact, Saddam had not been involved in the attack on America: the al-Qaeda terrorists of 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.

Rumsfeld was trying to fit the events of 911 into the worldview of the so-called neocons who had come together in 1997 to complain that President Bill Clinton’s foreign policy was “incoherent” and to demand that the U.S. take international preeminence in the wake of the Cold War. They demanded significantly increased defense spending and American-backed “regime change” in countries that did not have “political and economic freedom.” They wanted to see a world order “friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.”

After 9/11, Bush launched rocket attacks on the Taliban government of Afghanistan that had provided a safe haven for al-Qaeda, successfully overthrowing it before the end of the year. But then the administration undertook to reorder the Middle East in America's image. In 2002, it announced that the U.S. would no longer simply try to contain our enemies as President Harry S. Truman had planned, or to fund their opponents as President Ronald Reagan had done, but to strike nations suspected of planning attacks on the U.S. preemptively: the so-called Bush Doctrine. In 2003, after setting up a pro-American government in Afghanistan, the administration invaded Iraq.

By 2004, the administration was so deeply entrenched in its own ideology that a senior adviser to Bush told journalist Ron Suskind that people like him—Suskind—were in “the reality-based community”: they believed people could find solutions based on their observations and careful study of discernible reality. But, the aide continued, such a worldview was obsolete. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore.… We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The 9/11 attacks enabled Republicans to tar those who questioned the administration's economic or foreign policies as un-American: either socialists or traitors making the nation vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Surely, such people should not have a voice at the polls. Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression began to shut Democratic voices out of our government, aided by a series of Supreme Court decisions. In 2010, the court opened the floodgates of corporate money into our elections to sway voters; in 2013, it gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act; in 2021, it said that election laws that affected different groups of voters unevenly were not unconstitutional.

And now we grapple with the logical extension of that argument as a former Republican president claims he won the 2020 election because, all evidence to the contrary, Democratic votes were fraudulent.

Today, former president Bush called out the similarities between today’s domestic terrorists who attacked our Capitol to overthrow our government on January 6 and the terrorists of 9/11. “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home, “he said. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

In doing so, we can take guidance from the passengers on Flight 93, who demonstrated as profoundly as it is possible to do what confronting such an ideology means. While we cannot know for certain what happened on that plane on that fateful day, investigators believe that before the passengers of Flight 93 stormed the cockpit, throwing themselves between the terrorists and our government, and downed the plane, they all took a vote.

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Notes:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/11/politics/transcript-george-w-bush-speech-09-11-2021/index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20050205041635/http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=project_for_the_new_american_century

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#9/11 #September 11th #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #GWOT #G.W. Bush #forever wars #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP

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